Plasma/Drilling table build

[ShawnM]

What Jeff is saying can be true depending on the construction of your machine. Steppers may be enough and save you some money. I’ve seen some of the DIY plasma tables that use aluminum extrusions for the gantry and aluminum plates to support the gantry. Those lighter weight machines can use steppers and gearboxes and have plenty of power to move the gantry at very good rapid speeds with quick acceleration. The gantry alone on my 5x10 ShopSabre probably weighs as much as some of those entire machines weigh. In this case a high power servo setup may be a better choice but they come with a higher price tag. I also can’t have .15 settings on my accel and decel because the gantry is very heavy. Every machine and it’s construction will be different so design your motor/driver combo around the machine and loads you’ll be moving.

[tylerd]

This would be a retrofit for a 4x8 starlab, the gantry is pretty stout. Mine is an older unit all the new ones come with clearpath, I can upgrade via starlab but don't want anymore to do with CandCNC electronics. Plus with DMM I should be able to do this quite a bit cheaper than mfg upgrade price! Looking at Linuxcnc too, but that looks daunting to say the least!