What you need in a shop if you are going to do plasma cutting - Tips and Tricks with Jim Colt

In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry veteran from Hypertherm, talks about all of his farm shop's attributes. Visit www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables.
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VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Hi Jim Colt, here!
I just want to talk, one more subject about this Maverick CNC cutting table. One of the things is very important is to ensure that you are looking in the future when you are buying a CNC cutting table. Don’t buy, number one, don’t buy just based on price.
If you gonna keep one of these tables (I kept my last table in my shop for over sixteen years) you gonna keep for quite a while, saving a few dollars at the front end at the loss of some, at the purchase time with the loss of some performance capability or size capability something along that line isn’t worth it, you gonna have to live with that table for a long period of time. So, it’s kinda like buying one ton truck versus half ton truck, if you gonna use with the ton in the back, the half ton truck not gonna last very long. So same kind of thing here, this is the five-by-five table, I really, really could use on occasion a five by ten table and is not that much difference in price for the extra five feet to travel. All the expensive items: the motors, the drives, the computer, the software are exactly the same on five by ten table that they’re on five by five. So, keep that in mind. I have a serious limitation of space in my farm shop here, that’s why I am with a five-by-five table and I’m gonna have to suffer every once and a while. If I want to a cut something big, I may have to leave five feet of the sheet laying. You know, sticking out pass the table and then when I get part of the cutting down. I have to index it and move back in, that certainly can be done, but it’s not an easy task, not something I want to do on daily basis. And keep in mind that five by ten table, not really a big table in industry today, there are table fifty feet wide by three hundred feet long. So, think of a large shipyard, it’s still service something they has to do, big steel fabricating, those are pretty common size is in high end industrial machine. When you start, when you are looking at light industrial table like this MaverickCNC machine, these are typically gonna be in a smaller shop, it gonna handle played up, to about five by ten. So there, four by eight machines, five by five machine, there five by ten machine, and this even a lot of entry level, two by two, two by four, and four by four, CNC cutting table. If you really just add an entry level position, you’re cutting a part, one part a day or couple parts a day maybe two by two is what you want. If you gonna be, if you got a product, you’ve got some heavy product you want a do or some larger product, you might a look at something like the Maverick CNC, this is a great value for the money, based over time, is not one of the cheapest tables on the market, but it’s definitely a performer, we can see that already with this new installation, so the size of the table is critical.
Last but not least, same thing with plasma cutter, from the Hypertherm line, there’s a forty-five-amp plasma the Powermax forty-five XP, this the sixty-five amp, the eighty-five amp, the one hundred and five amp, and the one hundred and twenty-five-amp, these are air plasma lines beyond that you can go up to heigh hundred-amp plasma cutting machine. If you’ve got a cut some six inches stainless steel, you’re not gonna do on MaverickCNC table. So lot of choice is out there, let the expert help you make the right one. The expert at MaverickCNC can help you out with the correct choice for plasma cutting table size and getting your pricing that’s to a point where it makes sense, ok. Thank you very much!

[@texasranger8283]

These videos are gold. Thank you sir.

[@tradinghouseoutdoors3114]

Jim, I have a technical question for you. I have a fab shop here in Central Texas called Tradinghouse Design Co. I have been doing more light manufacturing lately (200 to 500 piece) on large orders I find that I'm spending quite a bit of time on dross removal and then using a flap disc to smooth even further. I have a powermax 45xp with fine-cut consumables. Im cutting an order next week that will be all 16ga. I'm pretty proficient at settings, speed, height control and amperage oh and clean air. Is there a gas or oxygen i can use to cut super clean?

[@kgrant594]

Jim, Can you comment on servo drive versus stepper drive in hobby applications. Cost vs performance.

[@jimcolt9760]

Good question regarding stepper vs servo drives (motors and electronics) as used on Maverick CNC plasma tables. Stepper drives are lower in cost due to simpler technology and less sophisticated electronics used to control speed and direction of the x and y drive motors, Servos are more sophisticated and cost more as compared to steppers. Here are some comparisons:
Steppers rely on software and electronics that control speed and coordinated direction of the motors in order to maintain the best possible speed (necessary for plasma cut quality) and accuracy. Properly matched to the moving mass of a cnc plasma machine you can expect steppers to provide acceptable accuracy at required cut speeds for most plasma cutting applications up on 3/16" and thicker, and with excellent accuracy at speeds up to 150 inches per minute or so (this will vary depending on machine design, gear reduction, motor size, etc.). Plasma cutting is a very speed dependent cutting process and it requires relatively high speeds as you cut thinner materials (as an example the best cut quality on 16 gauge steel with a Hypertherm 45 amp plasma is suggested to be done at 350 inches per minute.) Most stepper drive machines can go 350 inches per minute in a straight line (true x or y direction), but will typically not be able to maintain that kind of speed when cutting diagonals, small holes, fine features etc.....and the stepper electronics and software will slow the speed down in order to accurately stay on the cut path.......slowing the plasma down below its recommended best quality speed can result in cuts with dross, warpage and a wider kerf.
Servo motor drives by design have more useable power at higher speeds, higher acceleration rates, and used an encoder feedback device to accurately indicate to the software and electronics its real time position while cutting. Servos will typically produce better cuts as the material being cuts is thinner.......as these drives can maintain the required plasma speeds even on intricate features and small holes.
Interestingly....as the material being cut is thicker, and cut speeds are slower, both servos and steppers will produce essentially the same cut quality. So if you are always cutting materials at under 150 (or so) inches per minute you can expect the same parts from a well built stepper or a well built servo machine. Accuracy of a stepper or a servo will be similar as long as they are operated within their speed / acceleration range for the material being cut.
On lower cost, lighter weight entry level cnc tables you will see some very small stepper drive motors......in comparison the the Maverick stepper motors. Many of these extremely low cost machines have very poor acceleration capability, and struggle to provide good parts on thin materials (where best cut quality is at high cut speeds!). So plan to pay a little more for the Maverick machine that has properly engineered power / moving mass design with its large steppers if you are looking for good cut quality throughout the thickness range. Or step up to Mavericks machines with servo drives for best performance on thinner materials.
I have a Maverick stepper drive machine in my home shop. I am perfectly happy with its performance for my use.......I am not a production shop that needs to cut a wide range of material thicknesses and heavy volume. If I was looking for production work and wanted the best performance on gauge through over 1" thick then I would definitely have a servo driven machine! Hope this helps! Jim Colt