Getting exact hole sizes in your woodworking projects with a CNC router is a known issue and there is a way to get the holes to the EXACT size.
Making holes the exact size requires a bit of understanding of how the program is set up. This trick will take you to the next level with your CNC router.
The tips in this video show you how the industry compensates for a well-known issue and how to compensate for it.
The reasons hole sizes vary are many..material variations, size of the hole, the machine, cutting tool, etc.
All cnc software has features that allow you to take this into account. It will be called “allowance” or “offset”. This will tell the program how to write the code to run holes with your CNC router.
When you enter an offset, you are telling the software to add or remove that amount from the tool diameter
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VECTRIC SOFTWARE LINKS
[Please use these links when you order. It gives me credit. Thank you]
→ Vcarve Pro (Recommended): https://shrsl.com/36xfh
→ Vcarve Desktop (24×24” size limit): https://shrsl.com/36xfj
→ Vectric Aspire (3D modeling): https://shrsl.com/36xfk
→ Cut2D (for the budget-minded): https://shrsl.com/36xfm
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ROUTER BITS FOR CNC ROUTERS
→ 8-pc carbide CNC router bit set (w/ free vector files) https://bit.ly/3d1iQnF
→ 1” Surfacing bit required for surfacing your spoil board: https://bit.ly/2QEYLKz
OTHER THINGS YOU’LL NEED
→ Calipers. For the price, it is a very good set: https://amzn.to/338MAt3
→ Hearing protection (plugs don’t work): https://amzn.to/2Hs1RgW
Getting exact hole sizes in your woodworking projects with a CNC router is a known issue and there is a way to get the holes to the EXACT size. Making holes the exact size requires a bit of understanding of how the program is set up. This trick will take you to the next level with your CNC router. The
This video is to show a few things I have added to my table to make things easier for me and more efficient. Here are some links to the products I mentioned in the video:
Wire Magnet Baskets
Water pump: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071J858BK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Power supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T7EZM8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This video is to show a few things I have added to my table to make things easier for me and more efficient. Here are some links to the products I mentioned in the video: Wire Magnet Baskets Water pump: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071J858BK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Power supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T7EZM8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 source
In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry veteran from Hypertherm, talks about Torch Height Control on a CNC plasma table. Visit https://www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables.
The fully integrated torch height control is critical to excellent high-quality plasma cuts. Maximizing consumables life with Arc Voltage Height Control equals saving money! How to work within the budget when running a light industrial CNC plasma cutting table.
Be sure to subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon to get notified when new “Tips and Tricks from Jim Colt” videos are released.
Video description :
Hi, Jim Colt here with MaverickCNC. Nice little table here, this is a 5 by 5, they also are available in 5 by 10 and 6 by 12 sizes. Very good motion control and everything.
One of the features that I like to talk about, with a lot of CNC plasma cutters and machines is the importance of torch height control, also commonly known as THC. It’s a very important function for plasma cutting that a lot of people don’t realize and there’s still, there are a lot of machines out there on the market that are sold with no torch height control, in other words the torch always stays at a fixed height so it’s not always exactly the right height off the plate and there are also machines that are sold with some really simple, what I call stand alone torch height controls and those are height controls that don’t really integrate and don’t communicate with the CNC control, the motion control, the electronics and the software.
On this MaverickCNC the torch height control is actually what I call an integrated height control so it’s actually treated as another axis so there’s the x axis and the y axis that move the torch around and the z axis, the up and down axis controls height and it’s very critical. A couple of things that happen with torch height control is, the torch, before it fires, it has to come down to the plate, has to contact the plate and locate the surface of the plate. That kind of zeros the height control. The height control then, before the torch fires, retracks to what is known as the pierce height. Pierce height is different for thin material than it is for thick material, it’s very critical for consumable life to be at the correct pierce height so the torch then fires at the pierce height and then indexes quickly down to the cut height – a physical distance between the torch and the plate where it cuts best, the cut height is always lower than the pierce height.
As soon as the cut height is reached, then x and y motion start and the machine starts cutting it’s part. As soon as it gets up to speed, another height control function called arch voltage control starts to take over and that’s reading the feedback arch voltage between the electrode and the work piece while your cutting and that’s what maintains real time height with an integrated THC and that’s what gives you superior cut quality and excellent consumable life. Another important feature of the torch height control is something called ohmic contact and that’s the way the surface is sensed on the plate.
So if you have a CNC machine that does have torch height control but uses the Hypertherm retaining cap like this as opposed to this retaining cap, this retaining cap has a connection for a wire called the ohmic connection wire so every torch height control system has to have a method of finding the surface of the plate. If you don’t have that wire on the front of the system your going to be using either torque sensing or what’s called floating head sensing, it’s a micro switch in the torch head that allows the torch to locate the surface of the plate.
Now if you’re cutting very thin material and you can kind of emulate it right here, if your cutting thin material, the torque that’s needed for that contact type sensing might deflect the plate down a little bit like this and then when it retracts to try and go to pierce height it’s at the wrong height, it’s minus the amount you deflected the plate. With ohmic sensing which is on all MaverickCNC machines, with ohmic sensing you’ll have this cap on here, there will be a wire connected to it, it uses a very light touch with electrical contact or ohmic contact that does not deflect the plate and so when it retracts to the pierce height it’s at an accurate, very accurate height. That dramatically improves consumable life and as a second aside benefit because it knows the exact height it is off the plate when it indexes down to cut height and starts cutting, it’s at the correct cut height too.
So ohmic contact is a much more accurate means and it’s definitely necessary and an integrated torch height control is the way to go for CNC plasma cutting
In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry veteran from Hypertherm, talks about Torch Height Control on a CNC plasma table. Visit https://www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables. The fully integrated torch height control is critical to excellent high-quality plasma cuts. Maximizing consumables life with Arc Voltage Height Control equals saving money! How to work within
In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry veteran from Hypertherm, talks about how to cut expanded metal with a CNC plasma cutter. Visit https://www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables.
The Hypertherm Powermax plasma is fully capable of cutting expanded metal. The power supply has an expanded metal mode.
Be sure to subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon to get notified when new “Tips and Tricks from Jim Colt” videos are released.
Video description :
Hi, Jim Colt here with MaverickCNC, this is a MaverickCNC MV machine that’s set up with a Powermax 85 plasma cutting system. I get a lot of questions about a lot of different materials, we’ve spoken about corrugated material, we’ve spoken about tread plate cutting – things like that.
Another one we run into, quite often that is system is fully capable of handling, is expanded metal. You might use, it’s metal that’s actually expanded and has, usually has diamond shape holes in it and typically in the past you had to cut it with an abrasive cut off saw, with a hand cutting torch, oxy fuel torch or something like that.
The newer technology plasma cutting systems, like this Powermax 85 from Hypertherm has an expanded cutting mode so you basically turn the switch on the front panel of the power supply into expanded metal cutting mode and then throw your plate on the table and you do have to, in most cases, you have to defeat the height control system, in other words, put it into manual height control mode, control the height manually but it does a very good job cutting that material at very high speeds.
Another thing a table like this MaverickCNC table can unlock for you and give you really good cut quality.
In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry veteran from Hypertherm, talks about how to cut expanded metal with a CNC plasma cutter. Visit https://www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables. The Hypertherm Powermax plasma is fully capable of cutting expanded metal. The power supply has an expanded metal mode. Be sure to subscribe to our channel
For the last installment of our CNC Machine video series, the plan is to make a CNC milling machine. However, the results aren’t as impressive as I had hoped. Even though it’s not what I expected, the experience of making it is definitely worth a look.
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CNC Machine Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlg8lN4r9qWiAOUi3TW3CUr0LOI3S0zpZ
Project Page – http://www.tinkernut.com/?p=9799
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For the last installment of our CNC Machine video series, the plan is to make a CNC milling machine. However, the results aren’t as impressive as I had hoped. Even though it’s not what I expected, the experience of making it is definitely worth a look. _____________________________ =#=#=#= Important Links =#=#=#= CNC Machine Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlg8lN4r9qWiAOUi3TW3CUr0LOI3S0zpZ Project Page – http://www.tinkernut.com/?p=9799
In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry veteran from Hypertherm, talks about the different cut processes you might use on your CNC plasma cutting machine. Visit https://www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables.
There is no one process that is going to be perfect for every application. You have to determine what is most important to as the user. Is it cut quality, speed, cutting different materials? That is going to determine what the best process is going to be.
Be sure to subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon to get notified when new “Tips and Tricks from Jim Colt” videos are released.
Video description :
Jim Colt here from Hypertherm. I wanted to brooch on a subject that comes up just about everyday on online forums or somebody on the phone or an email to me, customers asking about which process is best for them. You know there’s a lot of different ways to cut metals – plasma, water jet, laser and oxy fuel and a few others, you can use saws and others.
Those are the main ones – plasma, water jet, laser and oxy fuel that are used on CNC cutting tables like the one behind me here. In reality, there is no one process that is going to be perfect for every application so if you can provide details about the type of application you want, what’s most important to you, is it perfect cut quality? Your not going to get that with any of them, nothings perfect. It is speed, you just need the biggest pile of parts off the table at the end of the day? Or do you have to cut some three inch thick mild steel today and some twenty-six gauge steel tomorrow? Or do you cut metal eighty percent of the time but every once in a while you need to throw a piece of wood or a piece of glass up on the table?
Because not all these processes cut all materials like that. So in a nutshell, let me talk about plasma verses water jet verses laser verses oxy fuel and I’ve been in a number of facilities that have every one of those processes on their shop floor and they use them for what they’re best at. So plasma, think about plasma, there’s actually a couple of different big variations in plasma cutting, one is an air plamsa like is used on a light industrial table like this one, this one has a Powermax 125 from Hypertherm on it air plasma cutting system. Air plasma’s the lowest cost to purchase and also one of the lowest cost to operate so the cost per foot of cut which includes the cost of the consumables, the cost of air, the cost of electricity, all of those things.
Really reasonable with an air plasma cutting system. Then the second kind of type of plasma cutting is high definition plasma cutting, your going to see that on bigger machines, machines that have better bearing ways on them, different types of drive motor, higher acceleration rates and things like that and higher cost. High definition plasma kind of takes a step above air plasma. The cutting costs are very similar but the edges are cleaner. They use oxygen for cutting steel as opposed to air for cutting steel. You can’t do that with an air plasma, oxygen gives a better metallurgic finish on the edge of the plate, faster cut speeds and high definition plasmas are really the fastest way to cut most materials used in production between thin gauge material and say one and a half to two inch thick material.
So high definition plasma’s another good choice. Laser, everybody say “well I think I’m going to go buy a laser to cut the art work I’m doing”, may or may not be a good idea, you need perfect art work or really tight tolerances and you can afford the high price of a laser cutting system then maybe the laser is the right thing for you. Lasers have a really high capital equipment cost, when you buy them they cost a lot and they do a better job than most of these other processes on thin material, in fact, this is a stainless steel piece cut with a laser out of, I’m going to guess, probably twenty gauge stainless steel, very very nice quality. You can’t do that with a plasma, you could do it with a water jet, we’ll talk about that in a minute.
In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry veteran from Hypertherm, talks about the different cut processes you might use on your CNC plasma cutting machine. Visit https://www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables. There is no one process that is going to be perfect for every application. You have to determine what is most important to
