Titivating A CNC Plasma Table

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awemawson:
This afternoon I shortened and re-fitted the two original slat support rails, and finished welding up the new third one and fitted it. They are not yet adjusted for height - a job for tomorrow.

Another job for tomorrow is to shorten all the slats, as now the duct is installed they, like the slat support rails, are 2.4 mm too long - not that they need to be such a tight end to end fit as they were - but at the moment they won't go in :bang:

awemawson:
So having done the farm chores (including moving all the chicken into a sealed polytunnel due to the threat of Bird Flu H5N8 * ) I could get on with aligning the slat supports.

I set them so the top of the slat / bottom of cutting victim is 5 mm above the side rails for no reason other than it seemed sensible that they receive the sheet when being initially loaded rather than the side rails - previously they'd been a couple of mm below the rails. If it proves to be a wrong decision it is easily reversed as they mount on adjusting slots.

Having got to this stage it was time to insert a catching mesh - it will be a pain if little bits that you want fall between the slats and have to be fished out through the clearing door - at least with a mesh they can be recovered with a 'magnet on a stick' fairly easily. I'm not certain that this mesh will be entirely satisfactory as I fear that it might impede air flow too much. It just sits in so is easily replaceable - it started off as a one metre square of galvanised expanded mesh and I turned up the edges 25 mm to stiffen it a bit. (Actually it started as a full 1250 x 2500 mm sheet that was great fun manipulating single handed - amazing how often it catches on things including clothing :bang: )

Right ho - time to trim those slats - no wait a minute, the whole idea about adding a third support rail for the slats was to curve them, which will reduce the 'chord length' - but how much. Answer - by just the right amount :clap:

So the acceptable original slats have been returned to service along with seven new ones to replace the unacceptables.

Now I need to plot and scheme how things will be laid out in the electrical enclosure - I'm umming and arhing about whether to direct hard wire motors and sensors into the cabinet, or the use plugs and sockets. My thought at the moment is that there is no great benefit to the plugs and sockets, and its another thing to fail in the future. I intend to bring all wiring into the cabinet and first to a 'DIN rail mounted terminal strip' which will give an easy point of disconnection and also useful for test purposes.

(* http://www.edp24.co.uk/home/defra_tells_poultry_keepers_to_take_precautions_against_bird_flu_outbreak_1_4806869 )

Spurry:
Glad you have the slats sorted. I was surprised yesterday when you said they were too long. I thought I had read of your intention to curve them, but could not find that comment, so thought perhaps I had imagined you had said it. Seems not. :bugeye:
Looking good so far.
pete

awemawson:
This afternoon I made the bits to add handles to the back panel of the enclosure that holds all the driver electronics and power supplies - It'll be too heavy to maneuver without them, and as I'm shuffling 'Blue Peter' models of the components to decide positions, they need to be able to speak for themselves in the debate :lol:

Not exactly hi-tech - just four slices of 20 mm A/F brass drilled and tapped M8 and some flat strip I got years ago when Proops Bros were closing down - it's a bit more than mild steel (cracks if bent and is semi hard) and has rounded edges so is handy for this sort of application.

Been cogitating on the best way of getting all the existing (*) cables into the cabinet - went through a/ 50 mm galvanised conduit b/ weld up a duct from 70 mm box section c/ a length of 50 mm Adaptaflex flexible conduit - all designed to keep the cables away from the sparks. Then reason prevailed when I realised that the cable drag chain / flexible duct is plastic anyway, and the new extraction duct nicely shields things from sparks. So I've decided to use a bundle of perfectly ordinary corrugated 20 mm pvc cable duct, slightly influenced by the fact that I already have it on the shelf :ddb:

(* I'm actually going to replace the cabling as it's rather tatty - two drums of 4 way screened on order in 0.5 csa and 0.75 csa )

Will_D:
Watching "How its Made" tonight on Discovery, they were building Big road rollers in Scandinavia (?).

They were plasma cutting 25 mm steel.

Question is how do you stop cutting the support matrix (i.e. your slats)?

Same goes for laser cutters and water jets

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