[How do I?] Plasma Cnc Table Into Router Option 4 Axis Rifle Stock Mill

countryguy

countryguy

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Ohhh boy- Here I go again.
Back drop: My Son and I keep coming back to this concept. We're green and not sure how to proceed. My precisionplasma llc 4x8 plasma table also has a high speed router attach jig. We have a good 5" of Z travel. and 4.5 x 8.5' feet of X and Y.

My post on the iplasma site:
Hello everyone,
Goal: We are trying to take our iPlasma table from PrecisionPlasma LLC and put in the router option to mill out rough cut gun stocks from Wood or plastics. ...and frankly I'm not sure where to start on the overall setup I should take. We run the CandCNC bladerunner setup. sheetcam and the usual Mach3. Note: I also have a 6" rotary table CNC ready from my CNC milling machine. We use dolpincam mill pro w/ 4 axis option in the shop portion.

Material: say a 3ft long block of wood. 3" wide. 5 or 6" tall .

The main Question is am I over-thinking this? should I simply use the 2.5D setup and see how it goes? Forget the rotary table? Or put it in and increase the range and capability? I know it will take some tinkering and setup work. Possibly even some gantry changes.

I think I am going to have issues trying to get the stock done unless we flip the material manually and run a 2nd half program maybe even 3rd? Thus I wondered about making a bolt up for the rotary table and putting it into action here? ( Like the tube cutting setups).

any good vids or site- Pass em' along. I'm not finding much.
thanks CG.
 
Maybe I could consider putting this on the regular Mill? RPMs are much slower? Wood dust in everything.... sounds like a 'dont do it' to me?

Vid of exactly what I'm thinking.
 
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A mill and machinist lathe do a great job on wood. You could cover as much as possible to keep saw dust out of the works.

Does a plasma CNC machine do the Z axis?
 
I would take a good guess at the best way to do the job, then go for it and see what happens. I would start with an air cut, then a chunk of 4x6 fir or something cheap. If the first try doesn't produce the desired result, then you will know what doesn't work and see ways to modify your technique.

EDIT: There is also machinable foam for testing . Any reasonably dense and hard closed cell foam works great for prototyping.
 
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Hi Franko yeah- but it is not much. I have I think 5.5" on my torch head for the table. I might be able to swing a bit more - but generally they do have a range for the cnc setups. So I get close to what I get on my Mill... They are a ton of fun. I use the plasma more than I ever thought I would. From Bushings, to covers, to geee.... Anything metal. :)

Franko said:
A mill and machinist lathe do a great job on wood. You could cover as much as possible to keep saw dust out of the works.

Does a plasma CNC machine do the Z axis?
Click to expand...
 
Countryguy, I've been eyeing the Shark and Piranha CNC routers they sell at Rockwell for a couple years.
 
What does the router look like on this puppy?
 
Hey Dan. Yeah - It precisionPlasmaLLc table came w/ a dinky aluminum mount for a type of Porter Cable electric router. I'm not even sure how ya atache it to the torch mount but I'm sure it would not be difficult. Now, I am eyeballing all these spindle setups on ebay. Man there are hundreds of these things! Air cooled, Water Cooled, DC, VFD, on and on... I definitly need to do some reading.

I wonder what Jim D. & Everyone thinks would be appropriate for smaller 4x8 table with a 2" stainless tube railings for X and Y. All have 620Oz drive steppers, (x has two. each side) Has an aluminum plate mounted on rolling Y axis of Gantry held via top & bottom roller bearings setup. It has a small welded gear track on tubes for X & Y motor travel. Z has about 4.5 travel on an Acme screw.
 
You really can't put too much router HP on it (within reason). You are really limited by the stiffness of the gantry, and thus the cutting speed speed is limited by the gantry. There is nothing wrong with any of the spindles that you mentioned. I would start out with the Porter-Cable that you already have mounts for. See how that works out, if you need more HP then take a look at other options. Porter-Cable is top of the line in the router world.
 
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