RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Now that the intro is over...

There is a lot of EMF interference with a plasma rig and servos are more
sensitive to picking this interference up in my limited experience. Not to
say that it can't be made to work, but just another thing to think about.

Why do you not want to go with steppers on the plasma rig? Slightly cheaper
and certainly easier to set up. I have a friend that has a Torchmate rig. He
got the gantry kit and is using a Camtronics controller with steppers. Seems
to have more than enough top speed and the accuracy seems very good. He has
used it with an oxy-acetylene rig, but started having severe interference
when he tried his plasma torch.

Tim
[Denver, CO]

> Looking for feedback:
>
> I am wanting to build a plasma torch for a business venture. I have
> been looking at Torchmate, Plasmacam and roll-your-own. Being a
> computer guy I like the Windows interface (yes, I speak DOS as well)
> to design and edit my graphics. I can do CAD but the type of work I
> plan on doing would use CorelDraw for most of the generation.
>
> 1. PlasmaCam has some pretty neat software that does cut paths and
> automatic conversion from scanned images. It also automatically
> inserts piercing point lead-in's, does the torch offset and it is all
> Windows based. The down side is the expense and that they prefer to
> sell their complete servo driven rig.
>
> 2. Torchmate is more of a hardware "kit" (and affordable) solution
> for someone like myself that already has motors, drivers, etc. They
> sorta ignore the software side of things. They will also sell me a
> kit of gantry parts less motors and drivers for a reasonable price.
>
> I am concerned that I will spend a lot of my time "cleaning" up the
> vector images from Corel to get good cut paths - things like cutting
> internal holes before cutting the outline. I would welcome any
> feedback from the group about using PC based graphics programs and
> clipart to generate the master files. The electronics and post
> processor I currently have is from Microkinetics purchased for a
> small CNC rotary engraver I have about 60% finished. It takes input
> from DXF or HPGL files. I have their Quickstep PC card and
> microstepping motor drivers. They have a native language "developer"
> tool that I assume can be used to interface to their card.
>
> The final machine needs to be servo based and I am keenly interested
> in the Gecko step to servo driver that lets me keep conventional step
> based electonics but uses encoder based servo motors for smoother and
> better control.
>
> I keep going back and forth. I have just about burned my eyes out
> reading information on the sites. Any ideas?
>