Building a plasma table, need advice.

[JAZZCNC]

-1605 ball screw for Z, 1610 for X. Nope, better design them yourself and order them from China. later we will point you from where. Y? still not clear until you say what length will be your longest axis. If you want to cut 2500mm long - rotating ball screw nut both sides is best
So yes, if you dont go bigger than 2500mm on one axis it could be all ball screw machine which simply put is much better than any other option.

Did you miss the word PLASMA.!! . . . .Ballscrews with rotating nuts.???????????????????????

[Boyan Silyavski]

Did you miss the word PLASMA.!! . . . .Ballscrews with rotating nuts.???????????????????????

I did not. what do you suggest for 4x8 table? belts or RP? Same price. So why not ball screws?

That's why i asked him what length. Did you check recently prices for *belts and pulleys* or *RP+pulleys and belts* . Exactly same as for ball screws. Until we don't know what exactly he intends to use the machine for it irrelevant to discuss further.


I personally say for Z belt, for X ball screw and for Y -RP, but that will confuse him and others who read further. There are many ways to make a plasma machine. Did i tell you that the big commercial plasmas use Ballscrew on all and RP on Y, and mind that - 2 motors with brushes on each side of gantry, so they brush rails for dust not to damage Hiwin seals

[JAZZCNC]

Boyan we know exactly the use it's in the title "PLASMA TABLE". Also have you seen the crap that comes off plasma machine.? What do you think that will do to ballnut rotating at high speeds along static rod effectively covered in grinding paste.???

You'll be hard pushed to find many commercial plasma cutters using ballscrews other than on Z axis. 99% will be helical R&P with more than enough resolution and easily achieve high feeds without stressing anything.!

[Web Goblin]

We have a few big plasma profiling machines on our site, and I used to work for one of the big companies, and I have never seen one yet with ballscrews on anything but the Z axis. All of the machines so far have railtrack and R&P for X axis, linear rail for Y axis and linear rail and ballscrew for Z.
Saying that we are just about to start work installing a 6KW laser with linear rail for all axis. Apparently this rather large lump of metal can hit 140 meters per minute on fast travel. For something that can profile 13mt x 3mt plates this will be interesting to see.

[superclarkey]

Thanks the info is great :-)

i want a working size of 8'x4' and the gantry needs the room to be about to jog out of the way so overhead crane can lift the plate in.

will be cutting upto 12mm plate max.

i have bought a hypertherm 45 for the cutting and will upgrade if it's not man enough.

[Boyan Silyavski]

I agree, most real commercial plasmas use helical RP. I will not insist further on ball screws,though they could be protected or dust evacuated in a downdraft table like i said. Obviously the less hassle, the better.

I don't know prices, but if he likes as he said "ready elements" he could look at Bell Everman "servo belt". Or try to construct similar belt on belt mechanism. I assume that 2 belts protect each other from dust in between, upside down and hidden.