Hello,
I do not live in a house and want to get some input on housing the CNC plasma cutter upstairs in an apartment room. There’s plenty of ventilation. It may not be ideal but is it safe and workable?
Would love some feedback and advice on this.
Thanks,
Ellie
Should be ok with the water table I guess. It’s not a great thing to use in a living space. It maybe hobby sized but its still an industrial machine. The noise from the compressor and plasma cutter will be a issue if you have neighbors and a landlord. You could use bottled gas but that will get expensive quick and the bottles are heavy. You might investigate renting or sharing a space with someone like in an artists group where they’ve gathered a place to work or shop space at an existing machine shop. Maybe trade work for space and access
I know someone who makes wooden furniture in an apartment building all hand work with hand tools and Nobody suspects. Plasma cuting would be lot harder to hide and maybe dangerous for you and your neighbors if you aren’t careful.
I was thinking he’d want to not have the water table - mine splashes a fair amount whenever I use the table as I keep it up within a half-inch or so of the top of the slats. The air just blows the water up & out a lot of the time.
The compressor is going to be the big issue - that’s gonna be loud, mine even drowns out the cutting noise from the plasma (which isn’t exactly quiet).
I would say he’s asking for trouble, to even think about doing this.
If you purchased the house with your own money, you’d never consider running a plasma cutter inside it. So do you want to be that tenant?
On the practical side, you’ll need access to a high amp 240v outlet to run your plasma cutter. Which if you are in North America will be unlikely to have in an apartment. You might be able to use a dryer or stove outlet, but they probably wont be near the room you want to cut in.
Disposing of the used water… if you dump it in the toilet or bathtub the fine metal particles will embed into finish and ruin them.
There will still be metal dust.
Dross removal, you’ll need a place to run a grinder.
It’s a bad idea.
Other tenants in the building with a plasma torch running are unfairly being exposed to possibly having their building burning down, this is nothing to take a chance on.
If your neighbors don’t dislike you now, they will in short order after you get this. Fire Marshall catches wind of this, he ain’t going be happy. But think of it this way if your looking to break your lease and move, they may not be against that now.
Have to keep it real here…This door is 2 years old and I’ve
ran my table with a water table in here for a year and this is what your dry wall in your house will look like if not worse.Personally, I’d recommend affording a house before a plasma table…this is a disaster in the making imho.
The mess alone of water splashing would deter me from it. And the metal dust builds up alot over time. And as others mentioned, The power issue, air compressor. If I felt I really needed the table I would try to find a space in a shop or garage with 220v and a big air compressor that i could rent for a weekend or 2 a month.
Picture you using a propane gas grill in that apartment room, now add the noise level of a 30 gallon (minimum) air compressor that will be going off about 5 times everytime you cut, in addition to having a 240v plug to run a plasma cutter. All in all not a great idea
Absolutely not! Thats an accident waiting to happen. Plus puts other tenants in danger. Not to mention fumes, smell, noise, disposal, grinding, compressor, etc…
Absolutely no way. It’s far too stinky (I don’t care how much ventilation you THINK you have!) and far too messy! It’s also quite noisy! Sparks shoot six to eight feet from it, the water table leaves a mess on the floor, you still need a place to grind slag off, etc.
Simply no way to do this in an apartment without wrecking everything, not to mention the safety aspect.
I wish I had better news, but maybe try a CNC mill or 3D printer instead.
-Ben
I don’t even like the messes my table makes in my shop. I’m serious. The water table makes a mess in the corner of the shop.
Exactly! It makes a big black puddle under the machine… I’ve been thinking about making some sort of catch basin or gutter system for mine to catch the splashes.
Not to beat a dead horse but I would NEVER have this inside a house or apt. I ran no water table for about 9 months and in hind sight the worst thing ever. Dust everywhere and so unhealthy for you. Water table eliminated so much of that, but it is still messy. With the noise and sparks I would never do it.
I am a hobbyist. I own my house. I have an unfinished walk out basement that I am planning to put mine in. My air compressor has been in the basement for 20 yrs. It is a very loud 220v compressor. Sets off the glass break alarm on the house if the alarm is set and i forget to turn off the compressor and it kicks on. I have air pipe running to the garage to use air tools in the garage. I also have my radial arm saw, planer/joiner, etc in the basement shop. I do have a window in the room where I am planning to put the CNC table. It will be right next to the window. I will have an exhaust fan in the window when I use the plasma cutter. That room has unfinished sheet rock. I have larger fire extinguishers in the garage, house and basement. All my other welding stuff is in the garage. I still feel like I am taking a chance with the CNC in the basement. But it will be as safe as possible and it is a shop. I do not have any room left in the garage for it. I DO NOT think one should be used in an apartment-not safe. You probably would want to run that by your landlord. It seems like a big fire risk. Garage or shop only. Oh yea, my garden hose is right outside the window.
I think you will regret having it in the house if you cut large amounts.I have things that are inside of drawers that have been turned brown.I was planning on putting a table in my house garage but after asking the same questions in other forums a few people were brutally honest and made me change my mind.I built a shop to put it in and if I could do it over I would have built a room in my shop just for it.
I’m the one putting it in my basement shop. Update: I just open the window. Put a box fan blowing outside. It sucks the air out. Open another window to get fresh air. My table is right by the exhaust window. When I cut you can watch the smoke/fumes get sucked right out the window!
