@toolboy - I’ll give this “at” thing a try, thanks! I always type everything out in a Word document first, and then cut/paste it to the forums. I just find it easier to put it down in writing here first, versus directly inputting into the various forum formats. The water/electric thing does weigh on me a bit, I might need to spend money on some of those Liquidtight fittings and weatherproof boxes. Shouldn’t be too much work to swap out the components.
@ChelanJim – No worries about any hijacking, your comments and input is appreciated! The extra shelf space was a must for me, so the casters on the shelf versus straight to the leg is where I went. Your set-up looks clean though, and I’m sure works great. I like those leveler/wheel combo units, everything I’ve read says they work pretty good. I’ve mounted my computer to the table (you’ll see below) and so far no issues. I went with SterlingCool Plasma Cut for my table. I’m sure the DIY recipes work just fine, I just wanted something I didn’t have to worry about and was designed for this work. Time will tell how it holds up without a bunch of filtration and I’ve had good results with the fish bubbler on keeping any growth at bay. I like the plywood covering the table. In my shop everything gets dirty. Between large gaps under the doors, open soffits up top, and living next to the desert…it doesn’t take long for everything to acquire a layer of dirt/dust. So even when the table is drained it will get some accumulated dirt unless otherwise addressed. I’ve already talked to my better half and she said she might be able to make some sort of cover that goes over the whole table. Kind of like a fitted sheet-tent thing. Maybe even cut/sewn from an old sheet?
So took the Z motor off and it works just fine, the coupler must be the culprit. I spun it 180° and re-installed, thinking there might be a very slim chance it would work that way. Can’t hurt to try, right? Was only able to get one of the screws tight this time, as two more stripped out after just a small amount of torque was applied to them. Aluminum… So back to the forum and used the search feature to find replacement couplers off Amazon. (the one on the left)
Ordered four of them, just in case and considering it’s not the only coupler on the table. Installed and the Z-axis now functional again.
Ran the break-in program and then made a quick series of shapes to do some test cuts on. Ran that through as a Dry Run only multiple times and the machine was acting wonky (technical term). X and Y run-aways like you were holding the button down, program stopping mid-stream, etc. Seemed more EM/software rather than mechanical. Went back through all the Langmuir literature again and noticed that in the THC user guide they had a picture of the Voltage Input Module (VIM) mounted to the plasma cutter. For convenience I had temporarily mounted mine to the table right next to the electronics enclosure box. I pulled the VIM off the table and stretched it out as far as the cable would allow and tried running it again. It ran through multiple programs and movements without a hiccup.
Time to make the first cuts! Sample shapes out of .070 aluminum.
Seems good to me, time to cut out a real part.
Bracket and lasers installed
I saw this somewhere here, but can’t remember who to give the credit to. Ran the power wires through one of the table tubes and installed a switch in the end-cap. Powering the lasers from a cut-up 5v charger found in the “charger and cable” drawer. Everyone has one of those, right?
Some fun stuff out of .125” steel.
