Looking for info on water pans.

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Teoplasma
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Looking for info on water pans.

Post by Teoplasma »

Hello CNC peoples,
My father and I have an Eagle Plasma table with a Thermal Dynamics cutter set up and working ok. We had a water pan built for it so I am now looking at getting it functional. The main questions I have are
Do I really need a special concoction or is there a simple DIY method to mix a solution that will work?
The table is 4x4 and has a 2-3 inch deep pan on it. If I "fill" it the added weight is significant, 200 to 300lbs. Would a single post support in the middle of the pan be sufficient?
Finally, How often do I drain and replace water? should I drain it after each use? weekly? once a month?

Thanks guys. This post was aimed at getting some activity to this account so that I can access all that the forum has to offer! thanks for any helpful advice.
plasmartist
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Re: Looking for info on water pans.

Post by plasmartist »

Not sure if you solved you water pan issues but I will tell you what I am doing for mine. I wont go into my water bed build because it sounds like you already have that under control, rather I will describe how I built the rest of the bed. There are plenty of great posts on water beds with sophisticated bladder systems that are beautiful and work well, but the amount of coin involved is more than I wanted to spend. I simply added 1 drain in my table that is plumbed directly to the bottom of a 55 gallon drum. Then on the top of the drum I have a air fitting with ball valve. Hook up the air and open the valve, the pressure in the drum pushes the water back up the drain to fill the table. close the ball valve and unhook the air and the positive pressure in the drum keeps the table filled (you have to make sure your fittings are air tight or the table will drain). At the end of my cutting day I open the ball valve back up and the table drains back into the drum in minutes. I have been cutting this way for 6 months, no additives in my water and I haven't had a single issue. I'll be doing a cleanout soon, which may change my mind about additives. Believe it or not the water is still clear (probably has something to do with local factors). Hope this helps and feel free to pm if you have questions on the setup.
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acourtjester
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Re: Looking for info on water pans.

Post by acourtjester »

One point I think you left out is air pressure, from the past it seems about 5 pis is all it takes to push the water back into the table.
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plasmartist
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Re: Looking for info on water pans.

Post by plasmartist »

There's more than one way to skin a cat. You can put a regulator on the drum and oven the valve until its full, which I probably should do sometime when I'm not feeling lazy. I on the other hand, since my drum is 3/4 full, simply open the ball valve for 5 seconds, then go about doing other preliminary checks on the table, then bump it again for 5 seconds, then continue other task until full. only takes about 5 minutes to fill when using 1" pipe. Please do not follow this method if you use plastic barrels, they may explode from the pressure, but steel drums do fine. If you do opt to use a regulator, remember you will have to plumb it differently than mine because many regulators don't back flow well.
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