Getting Ready to purchase in the near future.

As Ive already called and talked to Matt twice, Im still snow balling exactly how im going to go about decieding what I want to do.

Heres what Im thinking, Obviously no smaller then a 4x4 I got the perfect spot for it in my side of a partitioned pole barn, Its roughly 20 x 22 for my work area, and I got a 68 camaro on a jig I built that I can roll around. Now 4x4 would still leave me with plenty o room but Im possibly thinking of building a 30 x 40 or bigger pole barn next year, and think I should just get a 4 x 8 now and live with the space issues.

The only thing I dont like about the 4 x 8 is well, how do you load a full sheet by your self! I worked in a shop, we had 2 lasers 1 was a mazak and we used an electric lift to slide it onto the table sideways onto the table rollers, yes you could slide it without the lifters up just took a little more work. The Bystronic had no rollers and we loaded that with the forklift. Now I can see loading 16g or smaller by myself, but the fact you have to do it long ways rather then from the side, you need some sort of table extension or rollers to do this. And this isnt even part of the bigger issue, where do you store these bigger sheets, and then picking them up is another story. So as much as buying bigger first seems like a good Idea, it all really seems like more work then to just have full sheets sheered in half IMO, I mean a 4 ft wide sign seems like it would be pretty big. If I had the bigger barn id prolly get a small forklift at an auction and be done with it but I wanna work with what I got.

So I was told after purchase Id get some plans, Is it possible for someone or " the mod " to show the plans now, Ive seen the 4 x 8s posted on pirate 4x4. I Just wanna get a materials list to see the cost from where I normally get steel discounted through my cousin and then at another place that I heard will beat anyones prices. I wanna do this so I can figure the price difference between a Gantry kit and a complete table.

Figure its around $5K for a kit delivered, I got a rough estimate for delivery at 48.50 on the phone. and then figure $7200 for a complete delivered ( 300 freight ) so $2200 difference. Thats almost the price of the Hypertherm 65 Im leaning towards, until I talk to Mr. Jim Colt about that and the 45 Im undeiced atm, although Id rather have a little bit bigger. I Know Its not gonna cost anymore then 300 for steal, so Im basically paying 1900 for the table, which Isnt to bad, I bet they test it, I dunno. the torchmate 2x2 water tables 1250 I think.

Another thing, Ive seen the pictures for 5 x 10 with forklift protections, basically it looks like the rails are lower or flush to the table, for side loading, would it be possible to make different motor mount plants and move the rails on the 4 x 8 so it can be side loaded? Or is it possible to release some of the stuff for the 5 x 10 to retrofit it into the 4 x 8.

Another thing I looked into today, was the difference in price for consumeables in the Powermax 45 / 65 I think it was 125 for the 45 kit, and 175 for the 65. And whats consumeable life doing stuff? I think I read 200 pierces on a nozzle? Also the powermax 65 claims to have smart sense, I assume its only the 65 and 85, and not the 45. do you have to change the air pressure on the 45? And with either of these, after I hook my DTHC up can you change the amperage from your pc, or do you change the dial on the plasma cutter itself.


Ive looked up sheetcam and mach 3 and checked some youtube vids out, seems pretty straight forward, pretty sure on the candcnc.com sight sheetcam says it has the ability to nest, and I like the kerf offset so you just draw it the size you want it, and it auto adjusts.

Sorry for being such a bother, Ive been snowballing this in my head the past 2 weeks and cant wait to get it in my garage. Just trying to figure if I wanna pay the extra so I dont have to worry about building my table, as Ive got to much other crap going on, or save my self the cash and find time. Do I get to pick the color? Ive seen green blue and red powder coated, I guess it doesn't matter as long as it isnt green or yellow = P

I am right where you are at i am getting ready to order a 4x4 kit i wanted a 4x8 but room and having to load the 4x8 sheets would be a problem. I figured the 4x4 would be a good start i also would like to see the 4x4 table plans i saw the 4x8. I hope to get mine ordered in the next few weeks i am going to be using it as a side business for signs and yard art stuff.

ya ive already found friends and people at work that want or usually need stuff cut, plus my old boss can always send people to me because its just to much of a hassle when your busy to do small stuff on the laser. For personal use 4 x 4 is plenty, I cant see my self needing a full sheet to make the same part over and over. Most likey Ill alter the plans to either make storage for sheets under, or be able to wheel my welder and what not under the table.

If your looking for a 4x4 table get on it fast the price is going up to 7500 wednesday of next week.

Update, ordered the 4x4 gantry kit yesterday, and ordered a Hypertherm powermax 65 from harris welding supplies.

All in all Matt at BT was excellent to deal with thus far, and Im hoping within the next 4 weeks to have this baby up and running. Just need to figure out what Im gonna use for my pc if I cant get mine to work, but for a 4x4 Plasma cutter and steel Im just under 8K total, and thats with some extra consumeables for the cutter and what I figure for 100-150 for steel. Some may think its alot but I figure thats the cost of 2 tools, the Plasma is a tool of its own, I couldnt justify every spending that much for just a cutter to do little this and thats, prolly would go smaller but for 2300 bucks its not much more then a decent 220 welder. I figure 5K for a CNC kit is dirt cheap for the amount of stuff you are able to do with it, especially since its complete, software and all no piecing stuff together, they did the hard part already = ).

So Thanks, cant wait.
Tristan

Congrats i just got mine ordered mine today. I went with the powermax 45, I did alot of looking and you cant beat bulltears price and trust me i have looked.

I was thinking about one 7 months ago, forgot it, and then within the last 2 weeks figured nows the time.

Just got done reformatting my pc, built it summer of 07, Didnt realize until yesterday I actually had a serial and parallel port on the back...:laughing9:. Its got a duo and 2gigs of ram should be more then enough to be out in the garage and running XP. Got my Autocad R14 reinstalled and Solidworks 2004 which I only borrowed from my boss to tinker with while I was laid off I like it but not really needed for any of this, unless you start making fixtures and wanna make it fit to the part type ordeal.

Was looking at the CorelDraw software and DXFTool addon. wish I could buy an older version of Draw, unless theres alot of text and other stuff like icons and pics in the Suite 5. Its prolly worth it but a lot of money atm, the DXFtool seems priced resonably though.

On the CandCnC website sheetcam says it has the abilty to nest, they have 2 different parts easily enough to draw side by side in autocad and nest them, but can it nest Multiple parts? or do you just put mulitple parts into one drawing and sheetcam fits them into the space which I assume you have to give paramets for Length and width based on w/e your cutting out of.