Cnc plasma

[ziggymanpopo]

Good day ya all
Well i think I'm gonna take a stab at using duet to build a cnc plasma cutting table.
I already have spare boards I bought some time ago. Is this a good plan ?
I love my duet wifi-2 boards I use for 3d printing and also have duet 3 board I'm not using.. so I'm fishing for info on the best way to go.
Please chime in if you have any experiences you can share, such as what board would be best and easyiest ...also where I can find the best software for ease of use ect.ect.

Thanks in advance. Support the Hobbie and
Buy anything but junk from China...
Keep authentic duet parts and board available by not buying clones
BUY AUTHENTIC DUET!!!!

[dc42]

@ziggymanpopo it looks as though you may be the first!

[o_lampe]

@ziggymanpopo My Parkside plasma cutter has a simple on/off contact for the torch. The integrated air compressor automatically starts and stops (with a delay for cooling ).
I changed the torch to one with integrated pilot arc, so I don't have to touch the surface to ignite the arc.
I'm planning to use a simple relais for torch control. A Duet controller with supressor diode for the output can do that.

How does your plasma cutter work. Do you have any advanced control input?

Regarding tool chain or software I plan to use the same as for a laser cutter. OpenScad, Inkscape, Lightburn.
You might have to postprocess the gcode file to have a dwell time at the starting points, but I'll try to lower Z-axis slowly while the pilot arc is ON, that'll work the same.
Just have to raise Z at the end of a cut.

[rabbit]

Hi,
I have built also a plasma cutter with a duet controller.
It works great for simple cuts. I used estlecam and now lightburn.If you want to cut complex shapes you should mention a torch hight control, because of heat-distorsion. If you are using pilot arc torch you have to do the wiring carfully (shielding and grounding) because of EMI