Fix for XR Drains

  • filter fluid…keeps the maintenance down to a minimum
  • able to clean table and save fluid
  • fun
  • cool factor

As one person mused - the internet will have 22,431 opinions on how to run a CNC plasma water table. But here goes 22,432…I don’t want a bunch of standing water humidifying my shop all week. We do mostly weekend stuff and that doesn’t justify having water sit in the table rusting all the metal all week long…no bueno. Now we could run Sterling or Green or PlasmaFreeze or whatever chemicals. But disposal is a consideration. With our setup we fill, we cut we empty. No muss, no fuss. With some filtration we’re just dumping water out. Fast, easy and simple.

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simple…easy…

Thanks for the background, makes sense
I am in the other Peoria (IL), where this time of year I have to worry about ice instead of humidity!

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Prepped the outside vent covers. This will make room for the drain pluming and an airline. We’ll add a custom vent cap on the outside to keep the rain out. Really liking the Hypertherm and fine cut.

And this is the finished inside vent cover:

We also redid our logo for fun (this is a small 4.5" x 12" version). Think we still have some parameters to work out but the resolution looks pretty good overall.

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Outside vent cover fabricated and installed.

The new covers don’t have the louvered openings…and with all the gizmos in there (we’ll add the air line) we wanted a better way to keep rain out. Ready to start making money with this thing.

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Those drains look great. Would you loan those dimples out by any chance?

I’m with ya ToolBoy . Didn’t have a Dimple but the drains leave very little water. I copied your choice of materials and popped it together Saturday during table maintenance on my Pro. Awesome drain design from Scorched Earth!

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Glad you like it! We sure do. Those drains also make it very convenient to install filters. We cut out slightly oversized filters out of Scotch-Brite. Cheap, easy and work really well to keep excess sludge out of your drains. Just pop them in and they stay put even when you are filling up through the drains. Good balance between filtration and good flow.

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As for the dimples - easy enough for us to have done it but I wouldn’t do it over again. The bottom of the table on the XR is not flat enough to drain completely (distortion from welding most likely). We are using a wet/dry vac to mop up the remaining cup or two of water and gunk after a production run. The drains certainly make this super easy (especially because they drain all 4 pans) but the thin flange on the drain doesn’t really matter.

Great setup. Any chance you would be willing to share the fusion drawing for your dies? would like to try and 3d print a set.

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More than happy to share. However, we had to do some manual tweaks on the lathe to ensure we had proper clearance - a little trial and error. The drawing is a good starting point but not accurate to the final dimensions.

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Awesome. Thanks I was tempted to try and make one on the lathe but wanted to try a 3d printer one first.

@ScorchedEarthMW Would love to get my hands on those dies! Looks great love the drain and fill setup you have.

I wouldn’t do the dies over again. It cracks the powder coat requiring a LOT of primer coats and the pan itself is not very flat and obviously not tapered toward a drain. Just the thin metal of a bar drain is all you’d need I think. Works way better than that stock POS. I’m using a dedicated shop vac after we empty to clean up the standing water and sludge.

This setup works amazingly well for what we’re trying to do. If the table was running full time I’d do coolant and a compressed air system to fill. Nice not having standing water and humidity in the shop until we’re ready to cut. In and out. Use one of those magnetic wants with the internal, retracting magnet. Shop vac for 5 minutes. Easy clean.

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I’m using the pro table. No coating.

Well then. Better use case. I’ll PM you.

We did the 4 sink drains and it works good without dimpling. That being said have had some sealing issues and needed to run std. plumbers putty on 1 of them them (and the 2nd may need attention small drips) so that keeps them up a touch higher . It still drains good without dimpling. Pan gets nasty either way .Pull some slats and clean as needed. The meta/slag is heavier than the water so if you let it sit a bit then drain to barrels most of the heavy cud is in the bottom of the pan .

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Decided to offer the dimple die to anyone who wants to use it. Please respond to this thread to request being next in line.

While I think using the dimple die on the XR is optional, it would be a really good solution on the SS pans of the other Langmuir tables.

Normal size kitchen sink drain not dimpled. Drains are fitted with fine mesh stainless screen.


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