Info on plasma machine

[mohamed]

Hello i am looking to purchase a shopbot plasma cutting machine in the near future and i have a few questions. How reliable is the shopbot as far as the steppers and the software?
I have also seen the torchmate machine - and they are also good. Anyone can help with advice

[Brady Watson]

Mohomed,
I have a ShopBot plasma machine. It is very reliable and a much beefier production-oriented machine than the TorchMate. I 1st looked at the TM, but to me, it looked like it was just pieced together with a weak frame and they charge a maintenance fee for support after the 1st year. I have never encountered a problem with the steppers on either of my plasma or router ShopBot machines.

Where are you located?

-Brady

[mohamed]

thanks.
I am in Casablanca - Morocco

How about, the interference with other machines -
I have heard that the plasma could make interference with other machine in use. (Because, i have a laser engraving machine )

Mohamed

[mohamed]

What the max. thickness that we can cut wih a Hypertherm Power 1250 . ( aluminium - stainless steel and mild seel )
Did they give recommandations for differents materials to be cut ( speed and power )?
Also, is shopbot software for plasma cutting is OK - Because , they don't hav a download preview for the software in their website.

Thanks
mohamed

[Brady Watson]

All of the cables provided by ShopBot are shielded. I haven't ever encountered a problem with power causing interference with motion control. The max recommended advertised thickness of the 1250 G3 is 5/8" with severance of 3/4" when mounted on a CNC. The max I have cut has been 3/8" stainless. I just haven't had the need to cut anything thicker. You can obtain a list of speeds and feeds for each type of material from Hypertherm. They are merely parameters to work within, not necessarily what your machine will run. My understanding is if you use the Hypertherm "FineCut" consumables, you can cut thinner materials slower and also cut other things like thin copper and brass.

-Brady

[paco]

"Fine cut" consumables for thin material use small orifice with low amp setting... that's the key to "High Definition" cutting with plasma; high def. cut=low amp=low speed. That's also true for thick material... Copper and Brass should be cut using Nitrogen as for cutting gas for smooth finish... if you wish to "clean" the cut edge, you will need to add a mixture of hydrogen (can be from propane...) to obtain a finish cut edge that will be free of oxydation... both copper and brass form a rich bottom slag that will be easy to remove... much more than from stainless steel...

The Bot must be a good machine to handle plasma cutting?!

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh...
...sweet memory...
...sorry for that but I just miss a little working with metal...

[Brady Watson]

Actually Paco, the fine cut consumables work well with only compressed air. You must increase your arc voltage, but other than that, the edges are very good with a standard plasma cutter...No Hi-Def needed.

-Brady

[paco]

Sure Brady;
air can't work just fine too... depends on the results your looking for (and the torch setup).

To me, "Hi-Definition" to plasma is more about following rules than a torch model; you can enhance one torch capability by following guidelines/rules. Pretty much all the time, owners of a plasma cutter simply wish their tool to be faster... not better!

About gas... still, depends; steel is cut slow with a lot of hard to remove slag with air rather than pure oxygen which lead you to high speed cutting with a very clean edge often without even light dross... for non-ferous material you will surely prefer pure nitrogen (or air which contain mostly nitrogen)... not for speed but for a smooth finish.

[paco]

By the way, I agree that you don't need a "High Definition" torch on a Bot... that would be