Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: plasma accuracy

> If one was to cut lots of shim, say for production, I would look
> seriously at a low power laser.
> Dave

+1

A power supply for a small home made plasma cutter would be easy. Designing
and building a reliable, high accuracy home made plasma torch would be much
more difficult. The final result would probably only be useful from an
experience point of view, as opposed an output productive project.

I'd definitly go with a small laser if you want to do thin shim work. You
can buy suitable used CO2, or better yet, ND:YAG lasers on eBay quite
cheaply. If you live in the US, you're lucky enough to be able to make best
use of the US eBay, something I certainly wouldn't waste if I lived there!
There are truely criminal deals on the US eBay everyday.

Even industrial lasers are designed more towards high speed and high
accuracy on thin work like sheet or thin plate. It's nature of operation
defines it's most fitting application. Plasma behaves a lot like a normal
high pressure flame.

I thought about filing for a patent on an idea I had for focusing plasma.
However, the idea is perhaps a bit complicated for home application. I also
discovered another company was already using a similar idea they claimed to
have patented. Although I had been unable to find their patent application,
disclosure of a similar idea is enough to make application very tricky.

John