Thinking about buying a table

I have finally gotten to a point where I can purchase a CNC and Plasma setup. I have used waterjets and a torchmate before, but am wanting to have cutting abilities at my house.

My plan is to get a crossfire because i have limited space in my 19x19 garage, I will be getting a Hypertherm 45XP (Buy once, cry once) and probably the dewalt 3hp compressor.

I will mostly be cutting 3/16" and 1/8" plate that I use to fabricate custom rear axles.

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Welcome to the group! Lots of bright folk around here all willing to assist.
I have an early 2’ x 2’ Crossfire running on Mach3, a Prime Weld CUT60 and a home-brew THC. Love my machine, use it very often in my shop, It’s been a great investment. So, you’re not new to CNC, water jet and plasma, I foresee you having no problems getting up and running.

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Thank you! Yes I use Solidworks everyday, the waterjet programs and torchmate did automatic gcode generation in the nesting software so it sounds like I will have to learn a little bit though, but im looking forward to it. How did you build the THC I am leaning towards buying a bare bones table and adding to it as I go since 3/16" sheet should stay pretty flat

Cletus’ Crossfire Build n Mods

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Welcome to the forum!

There was a discussion recently about a CrossFire post processor for Solidworks, but I’m not sure one exists. The simplest and cheapest way out of that problem is to use SheetCam as the CAM tool.

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The trickiest part of adding custom THC is designing a Z axis that supports Initial Height Sensing that doesn’t create undue pressure on your workpiece (this creates an error if it deflects the workpiece). The THC part is easy.

As long as your table Gantry arm (X Axis) is supported on both ends, then you can probably get away without THC or Z if you use thicker materials, like 3/16". The cantilevered arms are hard to maintain planarity with the table. The double rail systems can be adjusted and pretty much keep their alignment.

Welome to the group!!

Just had a long discussion with a buddy of mine, he has the space in a huge warehouse he owns and we’re thinking of partnering and investing in an XR with a Hypertherm Powermax 125. He just returned from a vacation in Portugal and was blown away by some sheet-metal work done there. I think there’s lots of scope for such a machine here.

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That’s a lot of power for such a shallow water table (unless you use it without the water table).

I guess we’ll just have to modify as necessary. Want to buy the top shelf stuff up front.

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As an update I bought a compressor, and should be getting the hypertherm unit this week. I am going to be doing some hand cutting for a little before I buy the table.

I have a CF Pro thats about 90% assembled. $2200 in Corpus Christi Tx

I’ve had a plasma cutter for nearly 20 years and a crossfire pro for less than a year. The plasma table is something I wish I had gotten into 15 years ago. I use it a lot more than I thought I would, even for quick little things.

I run a powermax 65 and have a liner in the water table when I want to run 65 amps. I run it at 45 for thin stuff. I like having the option of doing thicker material, I’ve already done a few 1/2" projects.

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