CNC Lasers, Routers, Plasma cutters

[rjssigns]

CNC Equipment

Hi eSigns,

At some point my shop will be filled with CNC equipment, but it will be an incremental process.
A little background is in order for my shop. I spent 26 years in a factory most of it spent doing custom assembly and fabrication. This was concurrent with the sign shop that my wife and I ran part time. Now due to the changing economy it is being run full time.
I can run the whiz out of manual lathes and mills and need to step up to CNC equipment. A sturdy router will suit my needs for the "soft" projects. While a CNC bed mill is the ultimate destination. I weld for hire, mostly TIG on aluminum and stainless.
I drag race and have built my own vehicle from a totaled hulk. I resurrect crashed motorcycles. I paint all my own vehicles and do custom paint for clients. I build winch operated motorcycle loaders.(delivered one two weeks ago)
My wife and I do many types of signs. In fact we turn nothing away, as we have aligned ourselves with a large shop in our area and wonderful subcontractors.
To the point: I want to have the CNC equipment to be able to make what we call pieces-parts. Everything from strut and DZUS tabs and four-link brackets to CNC routered signs and vac form molds to laser engraved products. I used a Haas TM-1 to knock out cribbage boards which I then laser engraved in my prototyping class. (yes I went back to school at my age) That is what started the whole CNC craze at our shop. Heck, I took my wife to school on a Saturday and she ran the laser. This is not a passing fad for us. And once the equipment is on-line it will open other markets such as light industrial and of course the racers.

I value everyone's input and truly enjoy being a member of this forum.
You guys ROCK!

Cheers,

RJ

 

[jschulze]

Hi,

For what it's worth I just recently build my first cnc plasma table (60" x 60").

While I understand esigns opinion that it's best to build a smaller machine first, you really have to be honest with yourself about your own skills. I personally had zero doubt about my abilities to build this machine. The only reason I didn't go with a larger machine is shop space. Regardless of the size of the machine you still have to make/build the same components. It's just the lengths of some components that change.

From what I can tell you seem pretty mechanically inclined and shouldn't have any problems building a larger machine. I also build race (rally) cars and having machining experience goes a long way.

If you want to go with a plasma, look at candcnc.com. They have great turnkey packages for the electronics with digital torch height controllers. Automationoverstock.com has good deals on linear rails and k2 cnc makes a nice z axis that works perfectly with the candcnc package. I'm not affiliated with any of these companies, just a happy customer.

All in, the machine I built cost about $5500 w/ the plasma cutter (Hypertherm Powermax 65). Making the machine 4x8 would have probably only added another maybe $600. I kinda wish I had already since I moved into a bigger shop with more space.

I guess I'm just saying that if you know you have the skills, just go big and you won't have to worry about building again soon. If you have any questions just let me know.

 

[jschulze]

The machine a little more finished. Still have to add some doors to the electronics cubby and a few filler panels, but otherwise it's fully funtional and works great.

Here's a piece I cut from .25" mild steel. (The holes we're chamfered with a hand drill).

 

[rjssigns]

The machine a little more finished. Still have to add some doors to the electronics cubby and a few filler panels, but otherwise it's fully funtional and works great.

Here's a piece I cut from .25" mild steel. (The holes we're chamfered with a hand drill).

Gee ya think the gantry is rigid enough? LOL You could hang an engine block on that thing! With ballscrews on X-Y also you could put a good spindle on the Z and go to town on aluminum. Or is that what you had in mind?

My plasma rig will not be as robust as it only needs to carry a torch. I am looking at some UniLine linear rails from Rollon. Dead simple to assemble, but probably ridiculously expensive for the convenience.

I am gathering information on builds and components right now while looking for anything I can cannibalize. Already have some Thomson rails and 2 bearings. Even though I may not use the stuff I gather it makes good trade bait.

Super build.

 

[JKADesigns]

The machine a little more finished. Still have to add some doors to the electronics cubby and a few filler panels, but otherwise it's fully funtional and works great.

Here's a piece I cut from .25" mild steel. (The holes we're chamfered with a hand drill).

Kidding here... but you should get a engine block from your racer friend and cut it's weight in half with your handy little CNC... they might qualify for a lighter weight class then. :Big Laugh:Big Laugh

 

[jschulze]

The gantry is a little bit overkill and if I did it over again I would probably just use a single plate on each side, but it works good and I'm happy with it. I have a few other cnc projects planned, so it was good practice at least.

Here's a few pics of a few things I've made in the past couple weeks. Nothing sign related, just some projects we have going on in our shop.

It's funny you mention weight saving, on my current race car project I'm really focusing on weight savings. Turns out to save weight you just have to throw piles of money at it and somehow it gets lighter.

Hopefully I can post some pictures of some sign related projects soon.

 

[rjssigns]

The gantry is a little bit overkill and if I did it over again I would probably just use a single plate on each side, but it works good and I'm happy with it. I have a few other cnc projects planned, so it was good practice at least.

Here's a few pics of a few things I've made in the past couple weeks. Nothing sign related, just some projects we have going on in our shop.

It's funny you mention weight saving, on my current race car project I'm really focusing on weight savings. Turns out to save weight you just have to throw piles of money at it and somehow it gets lighter.

Hopefully I can post some pictures of some sign related projects soon.

How to Build a Race Car Recipe:
1) Find a vehicle with a cool body style
2) Buy that Vehicle
3) Rip out the complete interior
4) Stuff interior full of $100 bills
5) Repeat Step 4 until you cannot stuff anymore money inside.
6) Disregard Step 5 and keep stuffing.
7) Close door
8) Order parts
9) Build
10) Hope you don't run out of money.

 

[ridefst]

I've bought, operated, and repaired most of the major laser brands.
Just for kicks, I have also purchased a $1,000 chinese laser with a glass tube and a $7,000 chinese laser with a RF tube.
The $1k laser was of the type described earlier - provide your own bucket to hold the aquarium pump for cooling the tube.
All glass tube machines are fairly poor at raster, this was no exception. Vector was possible, but the badly translated proprietary software made it far more difficult that should be.
There are control packages that could be bought to retrofit, but not sure it's worth the time/money.

The $7k machine was definitely built better and worked fairly well - the software was still proprietary and difficult, but the machine itself was relatively decent.

However, after testing both chinese units were resold and I continue to run Epilog, Gravograph, Univeral, and Vision (trotec) machines as they are simply another level entirely with both build quality, reliability, and software (CorelDraw compatible)

 

[JAMEY]

Hi,

For what it's worth I just recently build my first cnc plasma table (60" x 60").

While I understand esigns opinion that it's best to build a smaller machine first, you really have to be honest with yourself about your own skills. I personally had zero doubt about my abilities to build this machine. The only reason I didn't go with a larger machine is shop space. Regardless of the size of the machine you still have to make/build the same components. It's just the lengths of some components that change.

From what I can tell you seem pretty mechanically inclined and shouldn't have any problems building a larger machine. I also build race (rally) cars and having machining experience goes a long way.

If you want to go with a plasma, look at candcnc.com. They have great turnkey packages for the electronics with digital torch height controllers. Automationoverstock.com has good deals on linear rails and k2 cnc makes a nice z axis that works perfectly with the candcnc package. I'm not affiliated with any of these companies, just a happy customer.

All in, the machine I built cost about $5500 w/ the plasma cutter (Hypertherm Powermax 65). Making the machine 4x8 would have probably only added another maybe $600. I kinda wish I had already since I moved into a bigger shop with more space.

I guess I'm just saying that if you know you have the skills, just go big and you won't have to worry about building again soon. If you have any questions just let me know.

Thanks for the info.

 

[jhanson]

Regarding X-Y axis motion, for the best quality you will want a machine that uses servomotors for its motion systems. The less expensive machines substitute stepper motors, which while cheaper, suffer from resolution problems (aka ticking) when trying to do smooth curves. This is true anywhere, but the Chinese are particularly fond of the easy-to-program stepper systems and like to use them on everything...

 

[limacchina]

chinese router

Regarding X-Y axis motion, for the best quality you will want a machine that uses servomotors for its motion systems. The less expensive machines substitute stepper motors, which while cheaper, suffer from resolution problems (aka ticking) when trying to do smooth curves. This is true anywhere, but the Chinese are particularly fond of the easy-to-program stepper systems and like to use them on everything...

From my opinion, (regardless I am a chinese or non-chinese), any country, if given enough budget , can build a good machine or any high-quality product. And if the company buy good quality components. Having good management is another thing to consider.

 

[briankb]

These guys just finished their Kickstarter project and also offer it retail. Several Laser machines under $3k.

http://fslaser.com

If you are interested in 3D Printing I backed this project just the other day for $1,299 but they also have a $1,099 level with heated platform.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2105227104/ultra-bot-3d-printer

 

[fixtureman]

These guys just finished their Kickstarter project and also offer it retail. Several Laser machines under $3k.

http://fslaser.com

If you are interested in 3D Printing I backed this project just the other day for $1,299 but they also have a $1,099 level with heated platform.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2105227104/ultra-bot-3d-printer

You may want to check out the discussion about FSL on the cnc zone they pulled there sticky because they had some bad feed back

 

[limacchina]

LIMAC router

try out on the LIMAC routers. these are very quality and rigid machines from case aluminium and stainless steel.

www.limac.cc

 

[fixtureman]

try out on the LIMAC routers. these are very quality and rigid machines from case aluminium and stainless steel.

www.limac.cc

Boy they are hitting all the forums with their sales pitch. New company no track record.