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CNC Plasma Cutter Iteration 1: Finishing Touches

by Joey Sacco on May 06, 2014

Sweet, this contraption works. Ok, now to clean it up a little. Make it presentable so it’s not so difficult to look at and operate. The cords were a mess, so that is something to take care of… IMMEDIATELY. How? Cable trays, paint… Oh, we were also using a hand torch attached to the floating head. That won’t do.

It’s really amazing what a little paint can do to spruce things up a little. If you couldn’t tell, we like green, a LOT. 

We added a water table to absorb all the gases that are emitted from the plasma cutting process. It helps cool them off too, so you can pick parts up right away after they’re finished being cut.

The cable trays really made the table start looking legit. When we had cables draping from an overhead jib-boom, the results were less than satisfactory.

 

Here is the mount for the new modified torch. We essentially disassembled the hand torch and converted it to a machine torch. The torch that comes with the original Everlast PowerPlasma 50 is a Trafimet S45 knockoff. There were machining marks on the plunger within the torch that kept it from moving smoothly. So, we cleaned it up and polished the surfaces, then lubricated them with some silicon grease. It made the torch more easy to use, but it still was not a very good setup. It would drop arc often, for unknown reasons.

 

The hand torch was obviously an unsightly setup. It was temporary at best, for prototyping. In an attempt to save money, the hand torch was modified into a machine torch. The body was constructed of PVC, and the old hand torch was cut up, and turned down on our lathe to fit within the PVC. It actually worked out extremely well. That is, except for the poor quality of the Trafimet knockoff. To disguise the PVC, some wrinkle paint as applied. It looked sharp.

 

To mount the torch to the floating head, what better way to create it than to create it on itself? Yes. This machine can make itself. How cool is that?

 

To clean up the table a little more, and add that final touch to make it look like a CNC machine was to install the monitor and keyboard to a swing away arm, mounted to the table. It really gave the table a more professional look, and was much cleaner. It also freed up some room around the table, where I had to have a small computer station.

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