Samson Table Problems

[JoeyD]

I own a 5 x 10 Samson Table which uses Plasmacam. I have the table square, bolted down and grounded. For some reason, it will not cut a square square. On a 20" x 18" rectangle, The corner measurements are off by 1/4". It is parallel on all four sides but just seems to be shifted or something. Any suggestions or comments will be appreciately. Thanks!

[Jetdctr]

Hello JoeyD,

There is a Torch Location Adjustment Setting for the XYZ axis in your Plasmacam software.

Goto VIEW, SETTINGS, SYSTEM CONFIGURATION, and in the Lower right corner is the TORCH LOCATION ADJUSTMENT

Check if you have anything in the boxes

Also I would check your drawing and make sure you have a true 20x18 rectangle drawing, and you did not draw it free hand. or with nodes snap function on, which may have distorted your drawing a bit, but still look right on screen. Use the Ortho ON snap function to draw nice straight lines.

If you post your drawing I can check it for you.
You can draw a couple of lines diagonally from corner to corner and use the measure function to see if your lines are the same and your box is square at the corners.

Good luck, Bob

[JoeyD]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll try and look at both of these details and see if I'm wrong somewhere. Thanks again!

[jimcolt]

The PlasmaCam and Samson tables use a shaft that runs through the gantry with a pinion gear that meshes with a rack gear on each side. It is easy to be off a toth or two,,,,which puts the machine out of square. It is very easy to check....assuming you have checked squareness on the machine itself by measuring diagonally. Push the gantry all the way to the back (the limit switch for initializing (homing) ids in the back left corner....if you look at the gantry you will see a hard stop right where the gantry contacts the rear frame of the machine....when it is all the way home this hard stop should be touching on both left and right sides, and if the machine frame is square you will get square cuts.

I have the 4 x 4 version (PlasmaCam DHC2) and it consistently cuts parts with a Hypertherm Powermax45 within about .010" , and perfectly square.

Let us know what you find!

Jim colt

[JoeyD]

Hey everybody,
I got my table working the way it should now! My gantry was not square with the rest of the table. So, I pulled the front two legs off and removed and reinstalled the gantry. I made sure to get both gears on either side to start evenly. I'm not sure if there is an easier way to do this, but it worked for me. I cut a rectangle 45" x 60" and it measured less than a 1/16" difference from corner to corner. Thanks for all of the suggestions!

[ornametals]

joey d, theres an easier way to move the gantry. i've had mine move from dropping metal on it. if you move the gantry to end of the table. away from the controls. using a large screw driver you can prey down the gear and grab the ganrty and move it without unbolting anything.

[BrianMick]

there is another easy way to square the table just by taking the tension spring off on the gantry.
pull the gantry all the way back and put the spring back on.


WALLAHHHH,
Brian

[north shore fab]

ive had this same problem with my 4x4 PC and had to take the rails apart and slide out the gantry. the weird thing is when i moved it into my new shop it was out of square again. had to repeat evertyhing all over. not sure how it can come off the rack and move over a tooth or two but it did it twice.

Tim
North Shore Fabrication

[srp]

Opposite sides of a machine bed or a porch or house foundation may be parallel however that does not mean it is square. The diagonals must be equal to be square. I think one should start there.

[geo4932]

The gantry can be squared very easily by removing the loader springs from the ends and that will unload the pinion gears from the rack. Then you can slide the gantry up against the legs to square up the gantry and then reinstall the loader springs. There is no need to remove the rails and gantry.

george

[FiveORacing]

I had a similar issue where the torch would "slip" slightly when rounding a corner in a certain direction. The corner had a little hiccup in it and that side ended up being 1/8 or so short. It turned out to be one of the pinion gears set screws was loose and it would slip slightly under load.