Picked up a very inexpensive Crossfire. It was rough, but the price was right. Everything works, but it didnt come with a water table. Going to use my work’s fab shot to make myself one. Is there any recommendations for how deep it should be? Using a Miller Spectrum 625 xtreem plasma.
Right now I have it set at 2" and made out of 18 gauge stainless. Is this deep enough? is the material thick enough/can it be thinner? Trying to keep this whole thing as low cost as possible while still making something decent.
Slats are 2" tall and 11 gauge stainless. Do these need to be plain carbon steel for any reason? Seems like most are and I want to make sure Im doing what makes sense.
I think you have made some pretty good design ideas. The table on the PRO measures about 2.125 inches tall (outside) and the slats are 1/8" x 2" but they are only supported in two spots. You have your slats supported in three spots so I think 11 gauge would work.
You could use any sacrificial metal that you have for slats but I don’t think you would want galvanized metal because of the added harmful fumes. I guess that could be nullified with good ventilation/respirator. Another consideration is to make the sawtooth design top on the slats (I understand some reasoning for it but not all the benefits). And, plan for replacement of slats: what material will be readily available at a reasonable cost. You want the slats to fit snug in their grooves or you will get some deviations in height.
The slats on our beds sit just about 1/8" above the sides of the water table by design. That is how you can be sure your metal is being supported uniformly and relies on the bottom of your pan being absolutely flat. The thinner the metal, the more difficult to have that flat bottom. If you can afford the 18 gauge, I would stick with 18 gauge.
I think if you go with 11Ga you SHOULD have the slats supported in the center. I do with my original slats and that’s mostly to keep the slats from moving sideways and causing a wave action when X is moving rapidly. I found noticeable movement causing ripples in the X direction on mine. That’s mainly because I have mine on casters so the table can jiggle during moves.
With that plasma cutter I think you’ll be happy at 2". I’ve run my hypertherm 65 at the full 65 amps on some 1/2" and I left some marks on the bottom of the pan of my pro. I’ve since added some 1/8" sheet steel to act as a pan liner and haven’t had any further issues.
Definitely go deeper. I made mine 4inches deep. I was blowing holes through the bottom of the stock table cutting a bunch of sheets of 3/8. Stainless is a waste. Same for the entire water table.
I made this 11 ga 308 Stainless water table after trying to cut 3/4 without the thing being full of water. The slow IPM and the lack of water did me in. Well, back to the new tray. The sheet of 308 cost almost $600 at the time. I don’t know how they make them 4 inches deep, but anything deeper than 2 1/4 will interfere with the carriages on the sides. I put one drain in the center and have never looked back.
Worked out well. I had a local shop make me one. Charged me $300 for all the parts. Ended up making my own leg set too out of some scrap aluminum profile at work for no other reason than I couldnt clean up the old stand well enough, and now I have storage space under.
All told, Im currently in to my system for $1900 for the table, water table and plasma. Hopefully come spring I can actually try and run it. Its too cold out to want to go and try now.
Just raise the gantry up. It’s 4 simple plates out of 3/16. Throw a bend in them to stiffen them up. I can fit a chunk of 6" tube under the torch on mine, and that’s with the 4" deep water table.
