I own a 4' x 4' plasmacam machine with a Hypertherm 600 on it.
It has a powerful Cad Cam tool that will import dxf but the machine
uses G and Servos - Large Servos.
It, the plasmacam machine now is a 2 1/2 axis machine - the 1/2 is the Z that
will follow up and down the surface of metal - say - metal roofing that are wavy.
Often metal varies across a 4' sheet - and the controller senses the arc voltage
and maintains it.

The cost is about the same - you buy a computer - and a plasma and an air source (large)
and space - don't forget exhaust of the metal mist - plasma meta can be bad to breath!!!.

If you want to talk - or see pictures - their website is good and we can talk.
http://www.plasmacam.com/

Martin

Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH & Endowment Member
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder



Wayne Cook wrote:
On Tue, 7 Feb 2006 08:42:04 -0800, "Steve B"
wrote:


http://www.metalmagician.com/equipment.htm



I don't think it's the best one out there at the moment. But they
where one of the first to come out with a cheap one. Thus I have a
friend who has one and know a few of the draw backs. First is that
they're using stepper motors to drive. Loss of steps can become a
problem if you try to push it to fast. Second is that they use a dxf
file instead of actual G-code. Back when they first came out there
wasn't as many cheap G-code programs out there so dxf made sense. But
dxf was made for plotters and is not perfect option for CNC. Due to
this it can take more time and money to come up with good files for
cutting.


Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm

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