new to this

[ktm530]

Wow that is a lot of info thank you very helpful. I was thinking same balls reward for z but never thort of pitch so that was very helpful. And open carriage linner rail tracks for x y. The motors thinking of closed loop motors 2x 34 for y and 1x24 for x and a 24 for z. A stand alone singalong border computer. But now the software????? Any suggestions I am playing around with fusion 360 but mach 3/4 seems to crop up a lot on videos again many thanks for your advice so far.

[Clive S]

Wow that is a lot of info thank you very helpful. I was thinking same balls reward for z but never thort of pitch so that was very helpful. And open carriage linner rail tracks for x y. The motors thinking of closed loop motors 2x 34 for y and 1x24 for x and a 24 for z. A stand alone singalong border computer. But now the software????? Any suggestions I am playing around with fusion 360 but mach 3/4 seems to crop up a lot on videos again many thanks for your advice so far.

Some more reading for you:-

https://forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-la...g-in-one-place

https://forum.linuxcnc.org/plasma-la...info-and-guide

[JAZZCNC]

The motors thinking of closed loop motors 2x 34 for y and 1x24 for x and a 24 for z.

Don't need 34's for the Y-axis because like I say bigger is not better. NEMA 23's will give you better performance and still have plenty of performance. I'm not getting into why because don't want to cloud things with technical details just trust me 34's would be a mistake.

A stand alone singalong border computer.

All PCs are kind of stand-alone unless you are meaning a stand-alone controller with PC built into it.? I don't know any stand-alone controllers that are not USB and like I said you will regret using USB for plasma unless the stand-alone controller is specifically designed for plasma and even then I wouldn't trust it.!
Also, stand-alone controllers don't usually have toolpath display or features for seeing what's going on. a PC based setup with a separate controller are much better to use and see what's happening.

But now the software????? Any suggestions I am playing around with fusion 360 but mach 3/4 seems to crop up a lot on videos again many thanks for your advice so far.

F360 is CAD/CAM software where you design the part and program the toolpath. Mach3/4 is the control software that runs the machine, they are completely different and not to be confused.
However, I don't think F360 does plasma CAM, I may be wrong as I don't use it, but most people use a program called Sheet CAM for generating the cutting tool-paths. This software is designed purposefully for Plasma with features exclusive to plasma.

The process goes like this. Design the part in the CAD side of F360 then program the tool-paths for cutting the part in the CAM side of F360 and use what's called a post-processor to save the file in a G-code format which mach3 can understand.
Then load the G-code file into mach3, set your X, Y zero points, usually, with plasma, you don't set Z-Zero as you have a touch sensor that sensors the material and lifts the torch to pierce height then drops to cutting height.

From what you are saying, again I strongly recommend you DONT buy anything because you have a lot of learning to do and will buy wrong.

The best advice is to start researching and reading any plasma builds you can find to understand the process of how it works in regards to CAD/CAM and control software. Also, the difference between a router and Plasma regards the Z-axis and THC, with plasma you have a Z-axis but as mentioned above you need some way to sense the material because each time the torch lifts to go to a new area of the part it needs to sense the material surface and retract to the pierce height, often this is done with the torch attached to a plate on the separate rail on the z-axis. Also, this separate plate is designed to break away from the Z-axis and stop the machine should the torch snag on a piece of material while cutting, which can happen often with plasma.