Hi from Portland, Oregon

[MisterFixIt1952]

Hi,
I live in Portland Oregon USA. I'm a retired IT and computer person who spends his time working on and in my home shop. One of my current projects is building a DIY 4x4 plasma table based on LinuxCNC. I'm using Mesa controller cards, servo steppers, ball screws, and a Primeweld Cut 60A plasma torch. I have a well-equipped machine shop with a mill, metal lathe, welders (MIG & TIG), and just about any tool you could need including a, soon to be working, CNC mill.

I was thrilled to run across plasmaspider.com. I am always looking for involved communities to post pictures of my current project, in this case, my plasma CNC table.

I'm always looking to meet other machinists, artists, and creative thinkers in the Portland area.

MisterFixIt1952

[acourtjester]

welcome aboard many DIY type here, sounds like you have a nice shop. A cnc table will help with many projects. I am also moving to the Mesa controller slowly, I have built other table with Mach and UCCNC.

[MisterFixIt1952]

Thanks for the welcome acourtjester. I really like opensource software and LinuxCNC is very good and getting better all the time, especially the plasma CNC thread. Some of the Mesa boards are not the cheapest solution and can have setup challenges, but they are very versatile. I bought a 7i76e for my CNC mill conversion. I think, for a plasma CNC with a THC and a pendant, a mesa card combo is a good solution and will cost under $300. The best thing is you can easily add on extension boards to increase their functionality if you didn't buy the right card. also, I'm giving consideration to making my plasma table a torch/router combo so I might need to add spindle controls, and such. My shop is as full as it can be so floor space has become an issue. Getting dual use out of a gantry frame is an idea worth considering.

I love repurposing stuff. Whether it's materials or equipment, I get more of a thrill remaking something into something else rather than spending loads of money buying something premade. If I'm using equipment to make money, and time is a factor, that's a different story but in my case, the fun is in the journey, not the destination. When finished I shouldn't have more than $1200 into the plasma table and not more than $2000 if I make it a plasma/router combo. I'm making my water pan out of a stainless steel commercial kitchen table I snagged at the local dump, on a recent shop cleanup run. Have to be careful not to come home with more stuff than I left with. I try to stay away from places where people throw away metal and electronic objects, LOL. As my father used to say, "one man's junk is another man's treasure".

Anyway, once I finish rearranging my workspace, I will start in on all of my CNC build projects. I've got 95% of my materials and parts. It's going to be a fun and busy summer and I look forward to posting lots of pictures about my progress. Being retired is awesome. The pay's not great but my time's my own.

MisterFixIt1952

[acourtjester]

Now the understanding or the "MisterFixIt 1952" mine would read 1943 .
I have a similar approach, I look at it as if I save money I can buy other things. My table is multi purpose, main functions are Plasma and Router, I also have a Drag Knife, and diamond scribe options for the table. Small changes in the G-code generation is all that is needed for the options. I swap out the water table for a spoil board, for sign vinyl cutting I just put plywood on top of the water table slates with a glass plate on that.