Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

All things related to the Centroid Acorn CNC Controller

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jcoldon
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by jcoldon »

i also like to add a table with direct drive motors like the forest cutting thin steel like 16 guage using a hypertherm pm85 45 amp requires 350 ipm speeds with good acceleration and no velocity slow down to get good cuts . any slowing down causes changes in cut voltage . then the thc unit wants to lower to bring voltage back up causing a dive during cutting . so min max setting on screen be needed also . and as for homing
most plasma users dont home the table we point to a start point hit zero all and run i never home my plasma table . unless i doing a large nest of parts on a full sheet . final a table with direct drive motors never do hypertherm book speeds on thin stuff they need reduction
building some that cant do hypertherm settings will be chasing endless cut problems
Bender_Is_Great
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by Bender_Is_Great »

Nice to have: on board 2D CAD/CAM

I’m excited to hear you’re working on Plasma software!
jcoldon
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by jcoldon »

hows the plasma screen going
martyscncgarage
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by martyscncgarage »

jcoldon wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 10:07 am hows the plasma screen going
More than a screen. Its a very cool, very responsive Centroid THC system Centroid is working on....
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
Setlab
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by Setlab »

Any chance a second tool like a scribe can be added along side the torch? Scribing out hole locations or part numbers before the plasma cutting operation would be a nice addition.
legacytorch
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by legacytorch »

jcoldon wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:07 pm i also like to add a table with direct drive motors like the forest cutting thin steel like 16 guage using a hypertherm pm85 45 amp requires 350 ipm speeds with good acceleration and no velocity slow down to get good cuts . any slowing down causes changes in cut voltage . then the thc unit wants to lower to bring voltage back up causing a dive during cutting . so min max setting on screen be needed also . and as for homing
most plasma users dont home the table we point to a start point hit zero all and run i never home my plasma table . unless i doing a large nest of parts on a full sheet . final a table with direct drive motors never do hypertherm book speeds on thin stuff they need reduction
building some that cant do hypertherm settings will be chasing endless cut problems
What he says about homing is very true. Usually I will just zero the xy. Just not really necessary to home every time.

I don't have a lot of experience cutting 16ga and similar thin stuff. But I would like to add that cutting thicker stuff especially above 1/2" you need to slow down on corners to make sure that there is minimal bevel to the cut. On the one machine we use It has settings to reduce speed on radiuses that can be dialed in. On the centroid we just end up manually changing cutting speed on the fly.

Another feature that I have gotten used to on the non centroid system is the z homing. The torch touches off on the material before every cut. Machine is running servos so it just goes based on torque resistance that you can dial in. Very handy for material that can warp. I think on a stepper system without encoders you would need what they call a floating z with a limit switch, but I have no experience with that.
ShawnM
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by ShawnM »

The Shop Sabre 5x10 I use requires the machine to be homed at start up. I think it's a requirement so the machine knows how large the table is and doesn't try to cut outside that dimension. Then I toss on a piece of steel and set the part zero. That's why there are machine coordinates and work coordinates. If you don't home the machine and then misjudge the size of the cut part what happens if the machine is cutting and it reaches the end of travel on the X or Y axis? :shock:

I hope Centroid keeps the same homing procedure at startup for the plasma version. It's really a safety feature of the software.

With the Centroid software you can program "smoothing" profiles to slow the machine at corners. This is done automatically for you once programmed. Manually slowing the machine down for each corner seems like a pain in the you know what? :shock:

Auto Z based on resistance is the poor man's way of doing this but it does work. Not as good on thinner material as it'll give a little. My Shop Sabre with the Hypertherm 85 has an ohmic sensor on the tip so as soon as it touches the material it backs off to a predetermined pierce height before firing the torch to pierce and then it moves down to the cut height and starts cutting. It's does this same thing for each and every cut like yours does.
legacytorch
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by legacytorch »

Homing has never been an issue. Machine has hard stops and you are not going to put material past the machine boundaries. My machine is 6x12 and homing takes along time. Everyone is fee to do it there own way. For me, I think it's just an extra step.
ShawnM wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:55 pm Auto Z based on resistance is the poor man's way of doing this but it does work. Not as good on thinner material as it'll give a little. My Shop Sabre with the Hypertherm 85 has an ohmic sensor on the tip so as soon as it touches the material it backs off to a predetermined pierce height before firing the torch to pierce and then it moves down to the cut height and starts cutting. It's does this same thing for each and every cut like yours does.
It might be the poor mans system, but it's nice and simple. Has worked flawlessly for me. You can dial back the setting for thin stuff. Different strokes for different folks. The ohmic system sounds intriguing. I need to look into that system further. Sometimes though its nice to not have to buy yet another $100-200 little black box. Building these systems can be death buy 1000 paper cuts.
ShawnM
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by ShawnM »

legacytorch wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:23 pm It might be the poor mans system, but it's nice and simple. Has worked flawlessly for me. You can dial back the setting for thin stuff. Different strokes for different folks. The ohmic system sounds intriguing. I need to look into that system further. Sometimes though its nice to not have to buy yet another $100-200 little black box. Building these systems can be death buy 1000 paper cuts.
Yes different strokes and I'm sure it works just great, I was just making a point about how it works. I'm sure both systems do the same thing in the end. :mrgreen: The Ohmic sensor touch off is built into the WinCNC system as one of the inputs and has it's own macro that's called before each cut, there's no separate little black box to buy thankfully.

As for homing, you may not put material past the table but if the machine doesn't know how big its cut envelope is it may try to cut outside that envelope and crash if you misjudge your part size and set it too close to the end of an axis. My table is 5x10 and at startup I can run the axis at 100% towards the home position and get them close and then press the home button. Takes less than 1 minute to home this way. I just like extra safety features when operating dangerous equipment. Again, different strokes right? :mrgreen:
Last edited by ShawnM on Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
legacytorch
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Re: Plasma Version of CNC12 Wish list

Post by legacytorch »

ShawnM wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:55 pm With the Centroid software you can program "smoothing" profiles to slow the machine at corners. This is done automatically for you once programmed. Manually slowing the machine down for each corner seems like a pain in the you know what? :shock:
I meant that is what we do just because it is simple. Not because it is ideal. It would be nice to have a simple control in the VCP to adjust this parameter.
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