Before I bought the CF Pro, I assumed by looking at posts that I would add drag chains as an early mod, and even ordered the parts and materials. But once set up, it seemed to me that the drag chains just added complexity and a source of cleaning and problems to my setup without providing and benefit.
Pics of my setup without drag chains and with the overhead arm are below, and I still have not figured out why anyone would add drag chains to this. If you run your plasma torch cable through the chains, I can see a rationale, but if you keep the overhead arm I just do not see what it gets you versus my setup which runs all the cables for the cutting head up the arm and protected by large split cable. Why not keep it simple?
The black is 2" wire loom and the grey is 1 1/2", I think. Everything to the head is contained in these, so I just don’t see how having the drag chain is cleaner, cheaper or easier.
You make a good point. I mean it does come with the swing arm and dirt is such a prominent thing with any of these machines that keeping at least this much of it overhead and easier to brush off sounds like a pretty obvious good idea.
I guess if a guy was having a problem with it for some reason then there’s nothing wrong with trying something different, but I think I’m on the overhead team until it becomes an issue that needs a solution. I already have such a long list of problems that need solutions, it’s not likely that I’ll put effort into changing something that seems to work as it is.
I did the drag chains and don’t regret it. If there is any, even theoretical, benefit it may be reduced noise. Wires run in parallel are capacitively coupled some amount. Current pulses in the plasma cable might induce some current in the shielding of the stepper motor cables and if so it might cause ground to shift affecting the reliability of the control system, especially USB. This is based on 40 years of electrical engineering experience, including industrial control systems. All I know for sure is that some people have posted they have control system issues and unplugging their laptop from the wall is beneficial. I leave everything plugged together and have never had a single glitch. Why that is is I cannot say but if separating the wires by some distance using drag chains helped then it was worth it. Of course, your mileage may vary…
This isn’t meant to be an argument against your logic, I’m honestly not seeing it and maybe missing something.
How does moving the wires from a hung position a few feet above the table down to a few inches away from everything else reduce noise? In my mind, my picture is that I would have just moved those things closer to the other things that could be receiving the noise?
I haven’t really noted how folks are doing the drag chains, but I guess they are leaving the plasma torch lead hung and just moving the signal and motor wires to the lower position? In that case I guess you are separating the cutting juice further from the signal juice.
I’m obviously foggy on things.
Like I said, I am not advocating for drag chains. I just decided to do it and there might be a benefit based in theory. I also like the esthetics but that is a matter of taste. There is certainly no one right answer and If what you have works for you then rock on!
The Z-axis stepper wire is by default routed next to the plasma cutter power lead. I know there are shields but any two conductors separated by an insulator forms a capacitor. Capacitors pass AC and as the plasma fluctuates some voltage could be coupled to the Z-axis stepper wire. This is all theory but no doubt the case to some degree. The only question is how much? I suspect not enough to cause problems but who knows? Separating the Z-axis wire and putting it in a wire chain to keep it tidy and out of harm’s way might make a difference. Then again, it might just be gilding a lily.
All of this looks awesome. My 2cents is that I was having snagging where my top arm wouldn’t swing properly and so I was looking into adding a bearing or something like that into the mix but I also had drag chain available so I build a shelf that bolted onto the tubes and I have loved it. I also added chain to the side of the unit to try and help all of those cables to not get bound. I love it! However, it does catch a little bit of the dust but that will be the next fix when I get my overhead exhaust setup.
I agree about the dragchain, they are somewhat less usefull with the swingarm installed…
i can see that you are running the table in a garage like i will do, how do you manage the dust/smoke
created? Do you wish you had dedicated ventilation???
if that is to exhaust the plasma fumes…you might want to put some filter media over it to prevent the wall outside from going black and the motor and vanes getting clogged with powder
OK, I bought a set of these from Heath. Even if they had no practical value, the appearance is so much neater. But I can see that it holds my wires firmly in place much better than Velcro straps and reduces the chance of popping the torch off my magnetic mount.
