95 Hard at work
 

Putting our shop's plasma cutter to use! Nothing quite like cutting 1/4in 6061 T6 single-pass at 110IPM.

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Very nice! Shooter arms?

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

oooooooo so pretty!

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Thanks, and nope!

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

I agree completely! This is the first time we've done 'trussed-out' lightening... so nice... worth the effort to CAD up.

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

What torch are you using? The cut quality looks very good

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

We did the "trussed look" on our base last year and while it looked good ( and we'll be doing it again ) it took FOREVER between having only XY CNC capabilities on our mill + breaking about 10 1/8" end mills. Pretty envious of that plasma right now :D

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Hypertherm PowerMax 85A, running at 85A unshielded. We are fortunate in that one of our coaches is a Hypertherm engineer and can recognize when things aren't right.

Having him help out has been the difference between "man, this this sucks and does not make usable parts" and:



Seriously, the difference in 1/8in aluminum was +/- 0.03in tolerance if we were lucky and +/- 0.010-0.015in tolerance quite reliably. We don't have 1/4in cuts from the 'dark days'.

We still re-drill holes to clean them up though.

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Been there, done that, know that feel bro, then got REAL motivated to learn about the CNC plasma cutter. We still do fine work (precision holes, slots, etc) on our prototrak mill though.

Edit: GWizard is an absolute life changer. We do nothing without it now.

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Blooming onion catcher's mitt...?

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Halfway there... maybe 1/3 of the way there?

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Looks awesome, one thing I wish our team had access to, a plasma cutter....

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

They're relatively affordable. I think a CNC Plasma cutter is a pretty great addition to a robotics lab, especially if you're just starting out with CNC equipment.

Looks like 95 will have some sweet looking parts! Excited to see what you've come up with.

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

What manufacturer would you recommend? I don't want to buy a low end budget (relative term right? LOL) model. I want to buy it only once but don't need aerospace or NASA grade equipment.

Any pearls would be appreciated.

Steve Miller
Coach 3355
Purple Vipers
Arlington, Texas

Re: 95 Hard at work
 

Hypertherm torch or bust. They are, hands down, the best torch and power supply maker out there. As for a table... we have a Nothern Plasma. It's decent, but I'd much perfer something with better driver software, like Torchmate (I personally have a torchmate CNC router).

Thanks!

And yes, they're relatively inexpensive. To put it in perspective: 4'x4' CNC router of moderate quality was $7,500 new, ProtoTrak CNC knee mill was $23k new, 4'x8' plasma table with torch and power supply and computer was $25k new.