From what i have seen these are great. For future expansion from a pro table would it be possible to build a bigger table and just buy longer screws and tubing then just transfer the existing stuff over to say, a 5x8 table? Would that work or be more trouble than its worth?
I just got mine up and running so I have no real experience using it yet. I think the design is adequate for what it is but going bigger I think would push the limits of these parts. I think you would be better served by getting a bigger table or building one from the ground up plenty of info out there for that. I considered building one but the refinements that went in to designing the Pro make such a nice, hopefully bug free and reliable setup.
Maybe some one here has modified one and will chime in.
I guess building from the ground up is kinda what i am thinking as far as a bigger table. just with longer tubes on the axis. since they already have the steppers and everything else figured out my mind went to just using all their electronics and hardware just on an expanded table. The only problem that would come to my mind is wobble in the screws, Dont think the load would be more but never dealt with one before. Kinda just moving my little knowledge from 3d printing over to this. Figured i would just throw tis out incase someone had done it or has more experience doing it than i have. would the square tubing fit on the table to cnc the mounting holes for the brackets or is it to tall? if so that would make things very easy if this would work.
I’ll wait for others to comment. I mean the table is very sturdy and possibly could be expanded but then the cables and electronics (programming or calibration?) would need tweaking as well.
Like I said it’s a good design but not sure it’s the platform for a 4x8 or whatever you have in mind.
I was in the same boat. I ended up buying a PRO model for two reasons.
- I planned to use the cutter as a small business/side business usage. With the pro it allows me to gauge if I need something bigger and if so what size. It also gets me used to what I like and don’t like about the design IF I needed to go bigger.
- I can use the PRO to make the parts If I want to build a larger machine.
A side benefit is IF I go to a bigger unit I can sell my PRO (Is a produced kit with support) and recoup some of my purchase price. From what I’ve seen home made CNC Plasmas don’t sell all that well.
I did buy a Hypertherm 45XP with a 50 ft machine torch so i have the plasma cutter if I were to expand.
When it came down to it the PRO was not much more $$ wise than the crossfire XL, water table, and Mach 3. The pro also allowed me to get up and running pretty much out of the box. I’m not the best versed in CNC machine design. I’ve rand them in previous jobs but not specified the stepper motors sizing, drivers, ect, ect. Of which one axis will end up being wrong and have to be re sized. If you do you tube there is a guy (maker table) that had I think a great video for concept. This guy was going down the same path as I wanted to so his info was good for me when I was deciding. Hope this helps
Video Link
I will say this much I really really like my pro. Unfortunately I have not been able to use it as much as I would like (other side of my business is exploding currently). What I have ran it when i get into a issue Langmuir has helped resolve the issue quickly. This includes a saturday at 9 pm, Can’t get this to work, issue that was had a solution that night. Overall great experience and wouldn’t do it any different if I could do it again.
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I am planning on going down this road in the next few months. I’m a little behind the 8-ball here so you may have already got a table and found this out for yourself. I do see some potential issues I’m going to have to overcome.
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obviously the table will need expanded. I’m going to use all the same bearings/carriages. Plan to completely rebuild the frame. Will most likely use aluminum extrusions as I think this will be the easiest to square up ect. I think that the X and Y axis tubes are the same OD dimensions so I will most likely use one of the Y-axis ones to expand the X-axis so I can cut a full 4x8 sheet and then have to buy new ones for the Y-axis.
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going to fab up a new water table, this time I’m planning on making it a single unit with 1 drain and will definitely angle the table down to the drain.
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Going to need longer/beefier ball screws, I haven’t decided on which size I will go with but I think the ones that are currently on the table could almost be bigger.
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The software doesn’t have any built in hard stops/overtravel warning ect. This good for expanding the table size because all of the electronical hardware will be plug and play from 4x4 for 4x8 ect. FireControl works good so I do not feel this will need upgraded. I use fusion to program.
So, long story short, I see no reason why you couldn’t expand the plasma table from a design perspective. I’m assuming the upgrades will probably be somewhere around like $1500-$2k but thats nothing compared to a 8x4 table.