f_armer
So I am starting my frame, I've got all my pieces cut. I'm using 3x3x 3/16 wall, probably a bit overkill on wall thickness.
The long bottom braces says maintain 21" between those and the top rails. Is there an advantage to having more room there? Just wondering?
I presume the center legs should be just centered between the outer legs, centered on the 103" tubes, not centered on the 111" ones for any reason?
Do you recommend leveling feet? I have a fairly level floor in the shop, I was thinking of using shims, if needed, to level it. Is that ok?
The water tray says it can be 106" to 109". Is there an advantage to be 106 or 109? I have a 5x10 sheet of 12g, I can go 109" but is there any advantage to be at 106" Or what is the reason for having the 3" variance?
I just don't want to get it all welded up and find out it would have been better if i had changed something.
Thanks
Don
jeepsr4ever
Did you get everything answered?
f_armer
Yes, I think so. Frame is all welded up and ready for the gantry kit.
I'm making the water tray 54x106 as per your advice.
I guess I should paint the frame while i'm waiting for the stuff. Not sure what color just yet.
jeepsr4ever
We use safety blue but primary colors look great! I have seen customers go green, red, yellow, flames and zinc.
f_armer
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Frame is done. Hope the pic works.
jeepsr4ever
Frame looks like we built it here! Great job!
f_armer
[QUOTE=jeepsr4ever;133609]Frame looks like we built it here! Great job![/QUOTE]
Wrong color though! I had a quart of black handy so thats what I used. Most stuff in the shop is black or red, so it goes with my "theme".
f_armer
Got my water tray ready to go. just have to weld in a drain pipe. Is one 1-1/2" enough? Or what do you guys usually put in?
The local Hutterite Colony has a cnc press brake, they did a perfect job, and only charged me $30
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jeepsr4ever
1-1/2 is good and will work well enough. Thats a beautiful pan!
f_armer
Well if one 1-1/2" is good then two must be better! I had a 1-1/2" pipe nipple that I cut the end off, but I still had the other end so I used them both.
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f_armer
So I got the kit today. I unpackaged it this afternoon and got to work. Rails, Gantry, and all motors are on. Everything ran smoothly.
Now I was going to run the wires and install the cable chains. It doesn't matter which side I run them on, does it? I plan on running everything on the right side (facing the torch side).
I must admit it would be nice to have better instructions, or at least a bunch of pictures to show how you guys do it. There was a bit of head scratching trying to guess where stuff goes. And it would have been nice to include the cable chain brackets, I'm in the boonies and don't have access to 1/4" aluminum very easily.
Is there supposed to be hard stops somewhere? If I roll the gantry to the end of the rail the gears go off the end of the rack, or is this a safety feature?
Tomorrow I hope to have movement, maybe even first cuts!
f_armer
Pics[ATTACH=CONFIG]381[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]382[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]383[/ATTACH]
jeepsr4ever
Did you access the plasma instructional? There should have been aluminum pieces in there for the cable carrier. Also there are Tnuts underneath the gantry for cable carrier.
f_armer
There was only one aluminum piece, I concluded it must bolt to the y axis drive. The holes in it are drilled on an angle and seem to fit there. Is there instructions that im missing? Ive only found this section. [url]http://www.bulltear.com/forums/showthread.php?19161-Gantry-kit-users-(Instructions)[/url]
And yes there are tnuts under the gantry.
jeepsr4ever
Instructions are online in the instructional. That piece is definately for the Y and I do believe our guys started sending out cable carrier holders (the flat aluminum with the 2 holes for the T nuts). I will have to check it out.
jeepsr4ever
Also on the non servo system the stop at the end of the rail allows you to coast into it. This eliminates crashes during overtravel. When this happens your power off your controller and push your gantry back on the gear rack and power up again. The servo systems are $3300 more but do have limit switches.
f_armer
Well I managed to make my first cuts last night. Couple problems though, no matter what I cut, it shows up properly in sheetcam and mach3, but cuts out backwards, or mirror image of what it should be.
Also thc is online, voltage is showing in mach, seems like everything is ok, but when it starts to cut it will just slowly raise the z until I lose arc. My voltage was set at 117 volts, but actual seems to be jumping around 70 to 90.
The plasma seems to be shutting off for a second during a cut, it will just cut out mid line randomly, leaving gaps of uncut. I have the plasma ground clamped onto the piece being cut.
It was fun to finally see it all kinda work though!
jeepsr4ever
Ok so lets go through a couple of things
1. If your cutting backwards go to config/ports and pins/motor outputs and toggle the DIRlowactive for Y axis then restart mach
2. If your voltage isnt reading properly you didnt set the voltage equal on plasma cutter and the small DTHC box. If you look at the abck of the box you can set it to 7-1 15-1 20-1 and 50-1. It needs to match your divided torch board in your plasma cutter. If you didnt touch the divided torch board in the plasma cutter it comes set to 50-1 so you need to match that on the small box before cutting again (which you probably have set to 20-1). If you want you can set your division in the plasma cutter by taking the sheetmetal case off and moving the last dipswitch on the board to get the "all down" position for 20-1. The board is located on the fan side of the inner area of the plasma cutter. READ the attention powermax 45-65-85 users topic in the instructional.
3. Erratic torch misfires can be caused by a few things.
1. Incompatable keyboard or mouse
2. Low air pressure
3. Windows vista
4. Dell optiplex numbers from 600 and less.
f_armer
I had the cover off the plasma and didn't see any switches, are the PM45's all adjustable? I read it is preset to 50:1, the dthc is set to 50:1 in the little box that connects to the plasma.
I'll check the rest in a couple hours, we had a blizzard yesterday and I gotta move some snow outta the yard today.
jeepsr4ever
If it is a 45 then yes it is static at 50-1. If it isnt reading correctly you either have a bad board in the Powermax 45 or there is an issue with the electronics. Maybe you should call in here for a couple of diagnostic run throughs with someone.
