DIY CNC Plasma Cutter (CHEAP) 

The time you took to organize and breakdown your thought process and then put it together on video is amazing. Keep up the great work. You are going places my friend.

It is wonderful to watch somebody go through the design and development iterations, and to explain the ah ha moments as well as the oh crap moments. So much of what is out there makes it look like somebody developed a fantastic completed build from scratch on the first try. Thank you for share your process.

Thank you soooooo much! I've had parts laying around for my 3d printer build but I've also been looking at a cnc project for a couple years now. This is exactly what I've been looking for

Very cool project! This is one of the most inexpensive Cnc designs on RU-vid. I have just about finished a mpcnc, and already have plans to tear it apart and try a new design, lol. I’m not sure that once you go down the rabbit hole of making a cnc machine, you will ever be satisfied with a final design! Thank you again for another great video

The way you RnD'd this is just fantastic. Self learning and really simple mechanics. Very well done. With an adjustable torch hieght controller, this would work so well.

That was the simplest and most effective description on how X and Y can work together, that i've ever seen!

The details within this video are pure gems. Really appreciate your hard work man!

Brilliant use of cables to make the X-Y move. Even more brilliant that you're doing it with materials that are almost free. I super appreciate how you make your thinking visible. Please keep up the great work. Subscribed. EDIT: I also like how you're using an agile design process to upgrade where needed. ALSO, I didn't realize that the parallel port was still available. I used to use those a lot back in the days of the old DOS PCs. Among other things, I used it to simulate the crank and cam rotary encoder signals for troubleshooting an R&D fuel and ignition control system. Really cool stuff here as you teach new things and trigger good memories from my past projects.

Great video! This video takes out all the hype hidden behind those costly sheet metal covers of cnc machines! I also managed to cut some metal with my cnc plasma machine built from scratch!

You sir are a genius. The mechanics of the CNC table are kinda weak but the fact that you made it all work and from stuff laying around is perfect. Subscribed off of one video 👍

I love that you displayed the entire evolution of ideas. This is exactly how I built things when I was younger and lacked credit cards or capital, or even knowledge of good suppliers. Hand drills, a dremel, vice grips, nails, and scrap. lol Great video. Disregard commenters who were raised on Google. Great video! Have you looked at other options like RAMPS and Marlin?

Original patent for The Etch-A-Sketch is US3055113A for those interested, 1959! Great work on the video, good explanations.

You can get 1/16" OD vinyl-coated steel cable for roughly $20/100' on eBay. Nice stuff---thin, flexible, and the vinyl coating makes it easy on pulleys. I still probably would have gone with just GT2 belt if I decided to go this route though. Cheap and accurate.

Very inspirational video, thank you for the simplicity!!!!

It so amazing to me, what you trying to explain is so clear to me, and really help for people like me, keep that's amazing. Thanks for sharing this method...

Very funny, creative and recursive way to make a CNC machine. Congratulations!

Great start. I would suggest that you look into plasmaC also. It's part of the 2.8 and 2.9 version of Linuxcnc. There is lots of other passionate people on YT who have used it to great affect. Plus thay may give you some ideas for a z-axis. Keep up the good work and let us all know how you go.

Wow great improvisation! Nice job!

Excellent work, very ingenious, I congratulate you.

Great video! just a suggestion but if you were to add small peace of angle iron with bearings or wheels to the end of each rod. That should stop the bouncing your getting when ever it shifts direction and at the same time it shouldn't add to much load on your steppers.

Great job! 🤙🏻! Thanks for story line! Very informative! Well done ! 😊

Really liked this. Some great solutions. Keep it up!

i love this movement system it may have limitations but its very clean

That was great, thanks heaps. Now to help my brother build one for his fab shop

Thank you for the true breakdown of the mechanics of the belt system and LinuxCNC for your CNC plasma! Actually seeing the trial and error was very beneficial and the evolution of the machine over the course of the video was inspired dude. I am currently trying to gain a practical understanding of electrical theory+components+schematics. How did you learn to manipulate electricity?? I have been reading books, watching videos and building CNC machines (Drawing bot, CNC Router Table [TopsCNC], and 3D printer) for a few months but all of these projects are well documented make the process fairly simple. Despite my efforts electricity still seems far from my grasp. Any recommendations for accelerating the process would be very appreciated!! Liked and subscribed!

What a fabulous tutorial for building an "Etch A Sketch".

Gostei muito do seu projeto, parabéns, vou fazer uma pra mim.

I LOVE THIS!!! CONGRATULATIONS. VERY NICE JOB AND NICE VÍDEO. Best regards

I've recently taken apart an old photocopier, and the photocopier assembly was driven with a rubber coated steel wire, so i thought that was neat. Also you might want to use plastic skateboard wheels to keep the cable from tearing it up.

You might want to make the frame stiffer by connecting those wires you have over diagonally from corner to corner. Or use a 1x4 wood. You also might want to make an "stick" that control the height of the plasma cutter over the sheets. Like a ring around the cutting area and then up to the middle X where the cutter is set.

Very nice. Make me want to see The Post Apocalyptic Inventor make a cnc from scrap. Although, his scrap is more like treasure.

Man, the neat thing here is that because the wood frame plasma cutter is so large, you could easily load in your own sheet and cut new stands for it and make a metal framed one fairly easily using only your own tooling.

It' so easy and so brilliant the same time! It's awesome!

Thanks I learnt a lot form this video

Dyneema rope or string should work instead of cable and its stronger size wise. Okay I watched the rest of the video, he he he....you totally solved it ! Congrats !

Thats actually very clever! Imagine this.. A maslo style CNC PLASMA... IF you're needing quick, easy, and cheap.. put a plasma torch on a 2 axis weighted / slanted... Place all starts stops at the top or vice versa.. As soon as it cuts out the piece will drop out behind the sheet.

great effort - if you wish to go cheap, visit an electronic recycling yard - especially the large office printers are very usefull for parts, also have a look at bicycle chains( you can add them together) and sprockets for the X & Y axis

Exelent, you have a new sub!!

an etch a sketch with steppers... brilliant young skywalker...

Great work

I was curious if you needed some offset weight to keep the plasma torch from tilting the head ever so slightly or like you said another method to attach

Great video! Thanks

Well explain so I just subscribed your channel bro

This is Brilliant

Hello, hope you answer me, how you control the torch, do you doit manualy with m3 and m5? how do you start the arc ?

Excellent! Thanks.

As far as the Z axis for the plasma torch, you could simply make a wire standoff guide or drag guide, a quick google will pull up some examples, I think this would be a quick and easy solution.

Very nice and helpful 👍 👌

how did you get around the high frequency noise and the Electromagnetic Interference ? When I tired to use my Plasma cutter on my CNC machine the laptop that went berserk (screen flashing etc) and the Port disconnected

Hello please I have a plasma cutter of 50A but I do not know the compressor which can go with

Could you link the final steper motors and bearings that you used?

CoreXY is a nice candidate for cnc mechanism!

Great Idea. Thumbs Up for the first Part of the Video with the explanation. Lets See If IT is worth Abo :)

You are smart enough to make these as a kit for sale. Use extruded aluminum frames. Use threaded rods to eliminate slippage in the drive systems. Package it with a $300 laptop or better yet a tablet. Start with a bolt together 4' x 4' system. Do not make the table itself, just the system that we can bolt to our own table. That will keep shipping costs low. The largest expense for most turnkey plasma systems is the table and shipping. This package could be shipped UPS for under $50. This has the potential to be a multi million dollar business.

Hi, this is very interesting! You don't have any breakoutboard between the Computer and the Stepperdriver? You may won't to change the stepperdrivers to a TB6600 or at least get a heatsink for the schmalz driver's. The other easy way would be to do the job with a Arduino, you wouldn't need a parallelport. For this hardware solution you can choose a lot of drivers with the CNC shield. The Arduino, shield and some generic driver kit should be about 13-15$. A useful driver in this Arduino configuration with your powerful 2Amps motors could be the TB67S109 driver, this one is made for the shield and is rated up to 50V and 4Aps (should cost about 4-5$ a piece). You can do amazing 2D drawings with Inkscape and save these as G- Code directly out of Inkscape. It's easy as eating pancaces :). Cheeers!

Хорошо придумал . респект

Very interesting

Very good!!!!

Hi, please how can you use digital output in linuxcnc as an input to add more input

the only thing i see that can happen is that you cannot tension one wire without tensioning the other if they have no equal tension they might slip and scewer , would work with bike chains , think that makes the setop stronger too (bikechains only bend one way the other is allmost rigid eazier to make loops and connect the carriage too as well ) as for the guide rails : wonder if curtain rails work maibe you can drill out the holes oversize of one of the slide bearings so you can screw the bolts straight intoo the other slidebearing if you dont go too big it should not be able to twist (not that it would matter with youre setup) as for the z axis , you could lift and lower the whole frame using a sort of screwjack on each corner driven again by a chain around the whole framewith nuts welded intoo them pushing a piece of treaded rod in or out of the frame (need a way to hold that treaded rod with the bolt rotating ) that would mean that all the steppermotors can be placed on one side of the frame and you dont have wiring moving back and forth as for tensioning the belts , you could make the frame expand in both directions at 2 of the corners , moving the corners a part will increase the distance between the pulleys

8:17 what is the pice you used to connect the wires?

I know this was meant for economy not precision, but what kind of tolerances were you getting from the final build iteration?

what is the accuracy of cutting product ?

That is hilarious how you laugh while you explain the process you run through when you created the skate wheel pulleys.

Good bro I have version 2 model for more stable in you're model it require more torque

in theory you should be able use a binary decoder chip to convert the 3 digital signals into 8 easily.

👍

🎉

Plasma with HF?

If you need a proximety sensor i have some expensive one laying aroud colecting dust you can have

Do you use FreeCAD at all? Much more feature-rich than MakerCAM.

Z coord condition is the same of me.. cool~~

@ 5:40 ... Toph Fans of ATLA gather here please... we have a new member

I cut the cable and just tied into it with a automotive 2 pin bullet connector

can i buy a kit from you

Wow, another awesome project. Do you have a patreon account yet?

Halo,,,can you sohw how to build you cnc my friend..

Threaded rod operation would be more precise for this table

привет пожалуйста схему подключения и прошив hello please connect circuit and firmware update прошивка под виндовс

Why would you go through al of this parts are cheap

nice job sir m64 not working your code is written sim pin out any sagesion

I live in England, I need to start exporting bolts to America, can get bolts for like 1p lol

Wouldn't a coreXY have been easier?

You need to use a wire straightener.

Pretty sure 3D printed timing belt clips are a thing.

I have a Gantry idea

2 Seconds in and ( MICKEY MOUSE ) Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha

Like for Debian.