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Anyone used a plasma cutter for case mods yet? My neighbor has one for fixing car bodies and it just eats through metal, especailly thin stuff. I got thinking how great it would be for cutting holes in a case normally done with a jewler's saw or jigsaw. It has an extremely small heat affected area and makes very fine cuts. If not, I'll share results as soon as I decide to put my window in.
Get the instructions for it if you borrow it. Neighbor of mine borrowed a plasma cutter. He didn't know how to use it so his cuts look like they were done with a torch.
Done right, it sure does a nice job. Saw a piece of 3/8" steel that had sorta an Omega symbol cut into it. Looked like it was a machined cut. Cuts through thin metal like a hot knife through butter.
it works great, a lot better than a 35k rpm dremel. just remember that once done that it cant be undone
Hey just get yourself a high pressure water cutter and outdo him with better looking cuts ;)Quote:
Originally posted by zackbass
Anyone used a plasma cutter for case mods yet? My neighbor has one for fixing car bodies and it just eats through metal, especailly thin stuff. I got thinking how great it would be for cutting holes in a case normally done with a jewler's saw or jigsaw. It has an extremely small heat affected area and makes very fine cuts. If not, I'll share results as soon as I decide to put my window in.
You can say that again. :(Quote:
Originally posted by raider1v1
just remember that once done that it cant be undone
You could say that for any tool...Dremels, jigsaws, plasma cutters, etc.Quote:
Originally posted by TheUltimateNewbie
You can say that again. :(
Or go all out and get an EDM unit :)Quote:
Originally posted by Adisharr
Hey just get yourself a high pressure water cutter and outdo him with better looking cuts ;)
If I wanted to spend the time getting a milling machine quality cut, I'd go and do a milling machine quality cut on a Bridgeport. The thing is that when plasma cutters don't work right, they're a real pain, as is the case with my neighbor's right now.
The really cool thing is the CNC plasma cutters in machining magazines. Imagine cutting perfect complex designs into the side of your case!
I have custom modded several cases with my CNC plasma cutter it is unreal what you can do. I just finished a pc60 mod you cant even see the heat affected zone. Doing it by hand with a plasma cutter requires an extremely steady hand. The gap between the tip and metal is extremely important to keep at the proper and steady distance.
Post some PICS of the cuts you made DR. I like to see some cool designs.:DQuote:
Originally posted by DR.NO
I have custom modded several cases with my CNC plasma cutter it is unreal what you can do. I just finished a pc60 mod you cant even see the heat affected zone. Doing it by hand with a plasma cutter requires an extremely steady hand. The gap between the tip and metal is extremely important to keep at the proper and steady distance.
I'd really like to see them. What is the process with programming the cutter? Usually on a milling machine you have to put everything into the machine manually like you were actually doing the job yourself the first time, but I was thinking that a computer program might be able to handle something on only 2 axis.Quote:
Originally posted by DR.NO
I have custom modded several cases with my CNC plasma cutter it is unreal what you can do. I just finished a pc60 mod you cant even see the heat affected zone. Doing it by hand with a plasma cutter requires an extremely steady hand. The gap between the tip and metal is extremely important to keep at the proper and steady distance.
Did I mention I would really like to see some pictures? Now I'm really interested in finding someone with one of these machines. Do you work with the plasma cutters, or is something on the side? I'm sure you could make more than a few dollars setting up some sort of case mod business.
Typically three axis is the minimum or a CNC.. Need the Z axis to lift the head, etc..Quote:
Originally posted by zackbass
I'd really like to see them. What is the process with programming the cutter? Usually on a milling machine you have to put everything into the machine manually like you were actually doing the job yourself the first time, but I was thinking that a computer program might be able to handle something on only 2 axis.
Did I mention I would really like to see some pictures? Now I'm really interested in finding someone with one of these machines. Do you work with the plasma cutters, or is something on the side? I'm sure you could make more than a few dollars setting up some sort of case mod business.
It's fairly easy and inexpensive to retrofit a manual CNC with a three axis system.. consider something like www.animatics.com
All you need is three of the small motors (2315D with probably work for most small mills), using a daisy chained RS-232 configuration and their virtual CNC software you can take practically any 2D AutoCAD file and have it automatically converted to G code for milling a panel.
Motors: 3 @ $700 each
VCNC software $1000
Cables $300
Any laptop or desktop $xxx
Not too bad.. 3 axis motion supporting linear, circular and helical interpolated motion as well as support for I/O for oilers, etc..
I was speaking in terms that a CNC mill needs the third axis just as much as the other two, but a plasma cutter can be set at a certain setting and do the job at that setting, as long as its flat.Quote:
Originally posted by Adisharr
Typically three axis is the minimum or a CNC.. Need the Z axis to lift the head, etc..
The purpose of the comment on the z-axis was to illustrate why you really can't make a good program to automate the programming of a 3-axis machine. Too much work that a computer is not suited for. An aquaintence of mine, owns a CNC shop that makes military parts for submarines and tanks that are too precision for some contractors to handle. You'd have to see some of the prints for parts he gets, five 1x3 foot prints for a part maybe two by three inches, completely covered with mesurments with tolerances as much as a few ten-thousandths. He told me a story about all the multi thousand-dollar programs that can reportedly take an Autocad file and turn it into CNC code. None worked, well at least for his line of work. The program would constantly crash the milling machine, and couldn't do things in a logical order. The parts described above took him over a week to get the code done and debugged for the machine.
On a two-dimensional system, like working with a flat piece of metal, it is much more of a tracing the lines to scale game. No machine crashes, or logical machining order to follow. Not a big deal for a computer to handle itself.
The CNC kit for the machine I have at home is a bout $2K. A little pricey after just buying a whole bunch of tooling. Maybe I'll get myself on a real CNC machine at the guy's shop described above.
For what you described as a CNC configuration, I'd go and get a plasma cutter and hook up my own little machine with those parts. All the CNC plasma cutters I've seen in magazines look like they could be made in few a few days in a modest shop (like my garage).
And since all that was OT, I really want to see some pictures!
I'd love to own a little CNC machine :) We end up needing to do a few small motor mounts and brackets now and then and it's such a pain having to have the local shops quote on it then go through the process. I believe everything you say about those military parts.. I have a brother-in-law invovling in machining which also does a few gov parts. Talk about overkill sometimes.. Some are even held to ten thousandths or millionths.. sheesh..Quote:
Originally posted by zackbass
I was speaking in terms that a CNC mill needs the third axis just as much as the other two, but a plasma cutter can be set at a certain setting and do the job at that setting, as long as its flat.
The purpose of the comment on the z-axis was to illustrate why you really can't make a good program to automate the programming of a 3-axis machine. Too much work that a computer is not suited for. An aquaintence of mine, owns a CNC shop that makes military parts for submarines and tanks that are too precision for some contractors to handle. You'd have to see some of the prints for parts he gets, five 1x3 foot prints for a part maybe two by three inches, completely covered with mesurments with tolerances as much as a few ten-thousandths. He told me a story about all the multi thousand-dollar programs that can reportedly take an Autocad file and turn it into CNC code. None worked, well at least for his line of work. The program would constantly crash the milling machine, and couldn't do things in a logical order. The parts described above took him over a week to get the code done and debugged for the machine.
On a two-dimensional system, like working with a flat piece of metal, it is much more of a tracing the lines to scale game. No machine crashes, or logical machining order to follow. Not a big deal for a computer to handle itself.
The CNC kit for the machine I have at home is a bout $2K. A little pricey after just buying a whole bunch of tooling. Maybe I'll get myself on a real CNC machine at the guy's shop described above.
For what you described as a CNC configuration, I'd go and get a plasma cutter and hook up my own little machine with those parts. All the CNC plasma cutters I've seen in magazines look like they could be made in few a few days in a modest shop (like my garage).
And since all that was OT, I really want to see some pictures!
What kind of CNC motors do you have now? Are they steppers or servos? I have used some of the animatics motors in a three axis milling machine with good results. It did a pretty good job of translating the drawing (not very complex) wih the third axis but a few modifications had to be made.. We just played with wax blocks first - a lot cheaper to ruin :D
If I ever find a host I'll post some pics of the Animatics stuff I have here in the office.. couple Thomson and Origa belt and ballscrew slides too..
Don't have any parts right now :( , only a small, Chinese made, manual mill. I use it mainly to make small projects, and am just starting to get jobs with some transmission shops in the area to fix bell housings for Ford Explorers. The bronze bearings wear and leak. I bore out the bearing oversize with about a 7 ten thousandths targetted margin of error. Hopefully when the heat starts to hit those Explorer transmission in the summer I start making a few dollars. :)
Who would have thought people would be discussing machining in a computer forum!
<Edit> Oops, forgot what my post was actually about!
The motors required for a CNC plasma cutter to do case mods probably don't have to be nearly as exact as those for machine tools, just because you won't notice even a tenth of an inch for design work. It might even be possible to do with one of those programmable Lego sets, if only they would hold up for metal fabrication!
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