Titivating A CNC Plasma Table

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awemawson:
So today's job - mount the electrical cabinet.

Location concept -

a/ Make the top surface below the top rail so that it doesn't get nudged when mounting plates for cutting.

b/ Position it so that the PC in its mounting sleeve will fit on the left hand side of the cabinet leaving room on the right for a shelf for the Hypertherm 45 Plasma Cutter

Now the top rail on this end of the chassis is 40 mm further 'in' on the machine than the bottom rail so somehow it needs spacing off. I was going to make some mild steel spacers from fat hex bar and paint them blue, but decided to save a day of paint drying by making them from stainless steel round bar. Only down side - needed to drill a radial hole for a tommy bar to tighten them up.

So, cut two 40 mm slices off the bar - tapped both ends M8 - Loctited some M8 BZP bolts in the end - cut the bolt heads off and bobs you uncle - spacers ready to go.

awemawson:
So this let me hang the enclosure on the studs on those spacers, to let me mark out where to drill the cabinet to align with the lower horizontal bar.

Then it was just a case of marking and drilling the enclosure - tapping the rail M8 and fixing it on.

I have to say my hydraulic pump up table gizmo was very handy in this regard as the enclosure is blooming heavy

awemawson:
Then to mount the PC sleeve on the left side - I could have just used nuts and bolts, but as I want to hang the door on the other side reaching round it would be a pain, so I dug out my Nutsert / Hank Bush kit. Doesn't get used very often, but one of those things that's ever so handy when needed.

Just two M8 Hank Bushes, and bolt it on - I've positioned the PC so it is slightly back from other surfaces so hopefully not the first thing to get thumped accidentally when moving it about.

awemawson:
Then to reverse the door: cabinet obviously designed for this - just a case of pushing plastic blanking plugs out of the side that will now take the hinges, pushing out the hinge pins, unbolting the hinges and re-building it all on the other side.

.. then don't forget to put the plastic blanking plugs back where the hinges were originally - this bit took more time than the removal and re-fixing of the door - they DIDN'T want to go back :ddb:

Like most of these enclosures, this one came with a steel 'back panel' that bolts inside to take whatever you are putting in there without having to put holes in the back of the cabinet. Very heavy - made from 2.5 mm plated steel. I will probably fit a pair of handles to it to aid taking it in and out, as with all the rest of the gubbins mounted on it, it will be very unwieldy.

So now with the cabinet mounted, I can give serious consideration to laying out the CNC modules and Power Supplies on that panel and have a proper feel for how cables will have to run.

awemawson:
Today the duct arrived :ddb:

Quite nicely made, but I probably should have left more 'tolerance' on the size as it was a bit of a struggle to get it in place. The corners had to be peeled back (I'd had them leave them loose so I could) to get it into the plasma table. Then it was a case of locating the tapped holes for the two existing slat support rails and drilling through to them, and fixing it in place with umpteen 6 mm screws in drilled and tapped holes.

All went reasonably well - only broke one tap and sheared the heads off 5 screws :bang:

If I was doing this again, I would have changed the shape of the funnel from symmetrical to uneven to locate the clean out door nearer the edge for ease of access.

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