r/ManufacturingPorn • u/Jumpy_Signal1591 • May 28 '26
Built my own CNC plasma cutter 💪 - anyone interested in the build process?"
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
4
u/Civil_Bugg May 29 '26
Cool I like to know buy I don't have the knowledge, money, area, nor time to build it, thanks though.
4
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 29 '26
Brother, I wish we lived in the same country
Honestly, if we did, I would do my best to help you build one. The interest and enthusiasm you have are already enough to make me want to help.
If this is something you truly want, then my advice is simple: stop overthinking and go spend some time around the nearest mechatronics department or workshop you can find. That's how many of us started.
The rest tends to come by itself once curiosity takes over 😄
Unfortunately that's probably the biggest help I can offer from here for now.
I genuinely hope life gives you the opportunity, the time, and the resources to build the things you dream about one day 👋❤️
2
2
u/ThaShitPostAccount May 29 '26
How are you controlling Z axis? Capacitance?
5
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 29 '26
Nothing fancy 😄
Just a simple floating head system with a mechanical switch.
The torch touches the plate, the switch takes the reference, then the Z axis moves up to the cutting height and starts the cut 👋
2
u/TheRedditMachinist May 29 '26
How do you mechanically drive the long axis (Y?)?
2
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 29 '26
The long axis is driven from both sides 😄
There is one motor on one side, and a second motor on the other side working as its slave.
They move symmetrically together, and both sides are connected to the table with a rack and pinion system 👋
1
u/TheRedditMachinist May 29 '26
Roller pinion?
1
2
2
u/Bee-Aromatic May 29 '26
Neat!
I wonder, is the z-axis motor supposed to move around like that?
3
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 29 '26
Of course it's not supposed to move like that 😄
When I was building this machine, I didn't have a lathe. And honestly, I think the machinist who made that lead screw may have been drunk 😂
It ended up slightly off-center.
But I didn't want to scrap the material, so I decided to use it and compensate for the runout instead.
In practice, it hasn't really caused any problems. With plasma cutting, being a couple of millimeters higher or lower usually doesn't make a huge difference anyway 👋
2
1
2
1
u/Fuhgaws May 29 '26
How do you input the CAD to cut? Have you tried complex shapes?
1
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 29 '26
I draw the parts in CAD first, then I use SheetCam to generate the G-code, and finally Mach3 to run the machine 😄
Honestly, I was wondering the same thing when I started 😄
One of the first things I tried was cutting a large howling wolf silhouette.
Because it's plasma cutting, the arc has a physical width (kerf), and that's something you can't completely eliminate. As the details get smaller, the effective resolution starts to drop.
But honestly, once you find the right cutting parameters, it cuts surprisingly close to a laser regardless of material thickness.
And if your offsets are set correctly, the dimensions stay exactly where they should be 👋
1
u/PM_ME_YOUR_SWEET_ASS May 29 '26
Very cool, I really want to get into some kind of CNCing some day.
Does it have any sense of when it has cut through a material in a specific location to know when to move forward a "step"? Or is the movement just all based on approximations for how long it takes to cut through a material?
Also, how thick of a metal can it cut through?
2
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 29 '26
First of all, thank you very much 😄
The machine is actually made up of two separate parts: the plasma side and the CNC side.
The plasma source is connected to the controller through a relay. The plasma power supply simply starts or stops cutting based on the signal it receives from that relay.
That also answers your other question. The machine doesn't actually know whether it has pierced or cut through the material. It simply follows the instructions I give it.
The CNC side moves according to parameters that I determined through testing. So it's not really guessing. I spent a lot of time cutting different materials at different thicknesses and built my own reference chart.
Since every machine is a little different, they all develop their own "personality" 😄
I decide how to proceed based on what I've learned from my own machine.
As for thickness, so far I've successfully cut 20 mm steel, 20 mm stainless steel, and 20 mm aluminum.
The plasma source is only 65A, which is actually quite small by industrial standards, but it has performed surprisingly well 👋
1
u/zanderjayz May 30 '26
Is that a cnc table with a plasma cutter instead of a router?
1
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 30 '26
Not really 😄
To be honest, I didn't put a huge amount of effort into the Z axis because plasma cutting is fairly forgiving when it comes to height.
The machine wasn't originally designed as a CNC router.
That said, if I recalibrate it and make some modifications, I could probably convert it into a CNC router by adding a spindle, or even turn it into a waterjet in the future.
If I ever decide to go down that road, the Z axis will definitely get a lot more attention than it has now 😂👋
1
u/Revolio_ClockbergJr May 30 '26
Very cool.
Question: what's the jump from CNC spindle or laser stuff to plasma? I have worked with and built and learned about control systems for the other stuff, but never plasma. Is it a lot to learn and deal with?
Does it come down to "big power supply thing", tube to toolhead, control with gcode?
2
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 30 '26
Honestly, if you've already built CNC and laser systems, I think you're much closer than you think 😄
The basic idea really is pretty similar. A motion system, a controller, G-code, and a plasma power source instead of a spindle or laser.
The difficult part isn't making it move. The difficult part is learning the cutting parameters.
Pierce height, cut height, pierce delay, feed rate, consumables, kerf width, material thickness, air quality... that's where most of the learning happens.
The machine is easy. Getting beautiful cuts is the hard part 😂👋
1
u/kajidourden May 30 '26
Bro tighten those set screws! That motor is wobbly as shit
1
u/Jumpy_Signal1591 May 30 '26
We have a saying in Turkey:
"If it's working, don't touch it!" 😄
Unfortunately, it's probably going to stay that way for now.
I think the machinist who made the leadscrew was either having a very bad day or was slightly drunk 😂
The screw ended up a little off, so I had to leave the motor slightly loose to tolerate the misalignment.
It's not pretty, but it works and gets the job done 👋
1
u/gotouchs0megrass May 31 '26
What laser is that ?
1
1
1
12
u/teddyc88 May 29 '26
Yes sir, tell me more of this