Plasma machines

[Steve Leighton]

I am looking into cnc plasma cutting equipment. I was made aware of the SB plasma through a "wood" friend. I am leary of getting a SB because of the wood background. Is anyone running a plasma machine? How do you like it? How does it compare to Torchmate? Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Steve

[bjwat@comcast.net]

Steve,
I have a SB Plasma setup. I was strongly considering buying a TorchMate, but the ShopBot was a MUCH beefier and production oriented machine. Everything from table construction, quality of steppers, control box and software (Parts Wizard for Plasma) are better by a long shot.

At the time, a fully optioned TM was around $24,000...and the nearest unit was 350 miles away in the owner's (TM's CEO) basement.

I also have a SB with wood cutting spindle, which I had a choice of seeing 10+ ShopBots in my area. After seeing a ShopBot, I was sold and placed an order for a wood and a plasma ShopBot within the next 2 weeks.

True, SB is new to plasma cutting...BUT don't let that scare you. Components are all state of the art...and support is absolutely unparalleled. A torch height controller is standard with the SB...no need to spend another few thousand for something that should be there in the 1st place. The SB comes with a Hypertherm 1250...standard. Not an HT600 with option to upgrade to HT1000.

E-mail me if you have any other questions.

-Brady

[artisan]

Steve, I am considering the SB plasma rig and I can shed a little light on the differences. I went to SB Headquarters and watched their machine in action. It is CONSIDERABLY overbuilt compared to the Torchmate machines and the others I've looked at with their extruded aluminum frames. Because of their "wood" background as you stated, these guys tend to build things to handle a lot of force...such as a router going through wood....whereas a Plasma Torch has almost no force, other than gravity on it. If you intend to do production work, I think you'll be very pleased at the difference and the well thought out design of the SB....I was. If I were spending the cash right now....I'd visit them first and see it in action....or just contact them with any concerns. Hope this helps a little....D

[artisan]

Brady beat me to it.....D

[gerald_d]

I am going to play devil's advocate here . . . . .

We have seen lots of posts on this forum relating to electrical grounding problems for the wood cutting applications. Well for a plasma system, with PLENTY of electrical currents and arcs, the SB would have to be a lot more resistant to electrical interference. Wish I knew what electrical shielding mods are done to the plasma SB's so that we could retrofit them on our wood cutting one.

Sparks stick to steel, but they do not stick to aluminium. In this respect, alu rails may stay cleaner.

Even though the plasma does not need much force to move and therefore a lighter construction is possible, loading and unloading steel plates can put a severe strain on the table. Dropping a 1/4" plate is a much bigger impact than dropping a sheet of ply.

[bjwat@comcast.net]

Gerald,
The pertinent electrical wires are well shielded. I haven't had any problems with the machine wigging out with either the Colombo or Plasma.

There isn't one drop of slag stuck to my SB frame. Yes, steel is beefier to handle the 1/4" and 3/8" steel sheets (3' X 7' ea) that I have been working with.

The TorchMate just wasn't right for me. I like machinery strong and robust and made with the best parts avaiable. Extruded AL frames have no place near a plasma cutter.

-Brady

[htmachco@aol.com]

Is anyone using a water table? If so, could you let us know some specifics i.e. depth, bladder, water up to work piece. Is this the solution to the smoke and dust?

Thanks in advance.

-Steve

[bjwat@comcast.net]

Steve,
I made a downdraft setup for my machine...I live in a residential/commerial zoned neighborhood. It doesn't work as well as I thought it would.

I am going to be making a water table where the water level goes up and down. I talked to Hypertherm about this and they said that you have to make sure that the tip of the torch and the grounded Ohmic cap says away from the water. It will cause the torch to ground out and will screw things up. I e-mailed them and they responded telling me that I should keep the water 4-6" below the material. I also spoke to customer service and they are sending me schematics on building the water table. If you call customer service, I'm sure that they will send you the same info.

There's not much info out there on constructing your own table...a few views on the supercam site and a few table manufacturers and that's it...

Hope that helps.

-Brady

[bjwat@comcast.net]

Hey Steve,
I just got the booklet from Hypertherm. They'll send you one for free.

-Brady