Plasma table build, first question....

[Robin Hewitt]

Touch start really means angling in which is tricky. THC is for Americans who weld up massive plasma cutters with flood tables and then discover that they are so far off square there is no way they can possibly work without one. Then they read about pierce height and cutting height and they are so full of stepper motors that they can't see any other way to do it, usually ending up with the same motor they are using to move a 200lb gantry just to lift the torch.
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Do you really need mega speed? It is nice if you have to go to the opposite corner on an 8'x4' table to start the next cut, but are you really going to be pressed for time? That long repositioning may just factor in nicely as the duty cycle on the cutter.
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I think you do need 0.1 G acceleration minimum to cut corners. More is better. Working in G makes the sums nice and easy if you are running low friction linear bearings. If the gantry weighs X pounds then a force of X * 0.1 lbf will accelerate it at 0.1G