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Workholding is mostly not an issue on an enormous CNC plasma cutter.; gravity does a fairly good job of holding heavy sheet metal in place on the mattress. However what in case your CNC desk isn’t a desk? The reply: magnets — a number of magnets.
The backstory on it is a bit concerned, however the condensed model is that [Lucas] wanted a CNC plasma cutter large enough to chop full-sized sheets of metal, however lacked the ground area in his store for such a beast. His answer was to construct a customized CNC machine that stands kind of vertically, permitting him to chop full sheets in a mere fraction of the ground area. It’s a implausible thought, one which he put numerous effort into, but it surely’s not with out its issues. Chief amongst them is the tendency for the sheet metallic to buckle and bulge throughout chopping since gravity isn’t working for him, together with the pesky downside of offcuts slipping away.
To assist maintain issues in place, [Lucas] determined to magnetize the mattress of his cutter. That required winding a bunch of magnets, which is roofed within the video under. Mass manufacturing of magnets seems to not be as simple as you’d assume. Additionally surprising was the necessity to flip off magnets when the chopping torch is close by, lest the magnetic discipline borks the chopping plasma. [Lucas] grabbed some code from the LinuxCNC discussion board that streams the gantry coordinates over serial and used an Arduino to parse these messages. When the torch is getting near one of many magnets, a relay board cuts energy to only that magnet. You possibly can see it in motion within the video under; at across the 18:15 mark, you possibly can see the sheet bulging up a bit when the torch comes by, and sucking again down when it strikes on.
The quantity of labor [Lucas] put into this undertaking is spectacular, and the outcomes are implausible. This isn’t the primary time he’s relied on the facility of magnets to cope with sheet metal, and it in all probability received’t be the final.
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