10' x 5' Plasma table design

Hello all, my name is Sean I live in Kerry, Ireland.

I would be pleased to hear your views of the design so far.

I have spent a lot of time studying many builds on different sites with some fantastic inspiration from many designs, this is what I have ended up designing.

It's a bolt together 2 sides and 4 crossmembers with the rail mounts bolted as well.

I might have gone for the all welded design but I think I might have bother keeping it all true, plus being on my own the weight might be a factor as well.

I have the Candcnc bladerunner 4 motor kit on its way over and I have the Powermax 45 with a machine torch.

I doubt I will be loading anything bigger than 8x4 1/4'' sheets.

The plan is to use 120 x 80 x 5 for the rails, the idea is to use 10mm flat slid down the inside to bolt into to allow a bit of clearance on the rail for adjustment, if I don't get them perfectly upright I can add adjusters as in the pic.

The rest of the box section is 60 x 60 probably go for 3mm wall?
Bolting the sides with 3 x 10mm (welding nuts inside the tube before assembly of the cross members)

I have made the tray slope towards the centre from either end, I know it makes the slat supports a bit more tricky but it should drain away fine with a cross break in the centre part, had to go that way as well with using a bolt together design other than leave it flat with no slope.

Tray and tank 2mm mild steel.

The plan is to use 25mm hiwin rails and rack/pinion drive, hoping to go for a unsprung pinion drive.

I still haven't finished the gantry design yet, but thinking of using 70mm x 70mm x 3mm steel.

Thanks for now, looking forward to starting the build after many days of staring at the screen.


http://wolf.servers.eqx.misp.co.uk/~...ics/Table1.JPG


http://wolf.servers.eqx.misp.co.uk/~...ics/Table2.JPG


http://wolf.servers.eqx.misp.co.uk/~...ics/Table3.JPG


http://wolf.servers.eqx.misp.co.uk/~...ics/Table4.JPG


With some nice grub screws rather than the bolts.
http://wolf.servers.eqx.misp.co.uk/~...adjustment.jpg


And that's where the username comes from :D


http://wolf.servers.eqx.misp.co.uk/~...ppics/Bass.jpg

Quite beautiful, you will do well :beer:

I looked at it and thought 10' x 5' so each inch of water in that tank weighs 250 lbs, hope he's cross bracing below it...

Then I misunderstood what I was looking at, thought you only had the water table under half the bed, smacked my forehead and said, "That is freakin' brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?" Then I realised you hadn't :hysterical:

In the real world I spend most of my time making relatively small things, I decided on an 8' x 4' table simply so I could pop a standard sheet on it.

Making small things means that by flipping the sheet I could do most of my cutting in one corner and that is where I need the water. No point in having water where I don't need it. Should I ever need the full bed length I simply accept that occasionally I will get dust.

Once I decided one corner was enough and I'd only stray out of it when I cut a long part, the slats outside my corner can suddenly have a much wider spacing because the part is long enough to span larger gaps or it would not be there.

Thanks Robin, some good points there about only using one end of the table, can see that happening to me quite easily, but wanted to be covered just in case, it has me thinking though maybe filling the tray up in two separate halves could be a good idea!
Might give that some more thought.

Nope no plans for cross bracing I'm afraid, just as you see there, can't see it going anywhere :encouragement:

Cross bracing under the water bed. I was thinking that if you drop a quarter ton of water in to a 2mm tray it is going to sag in the middle.
Might be okay, depends how you support it, have a few paper towels handy :beer:

Sorry Robin for some reason I thought you mean't cross bracing the main frame, yes you are right enough about the tray, at the moment it's only showing support for either end and the 2 centre frames, it will likely need some extra between them, was going to see how it feels once I get to that stage, cheers