This past weekend I managed to get some long-delayed work on our CNC plasma table done.

It has been setup and running for months, but needs quite a bit of things done to make it a more durable and user friendly installation.
First, there was a gaggle of wires and cables strewn all over under the water table that needed to get up off the ground and organized.
I sourced some old scrap chromed exhaust heat shields and modified them into a sort of cable tray and drilled and tapped the machine frame to accept them. You can see them tucked up high on the frame here.

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Then there was this fragile looking little interface adapter box that allows the computer and machine to control and talk to the plasma cutter power unit. It was just hanging loose, so I whipped up a little bracket to mount it to the top of the power supply and clamp the cables to stop them from disconnecting or getting broken.

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The irony of having to crudely hand fabricate brackets that the CNC could make better and faster-but couldn’t because it was torn apart. 😄😄🙄

I had to disconnect all the machine control wiring to improve its cable management, strain relief, and get the cables into this old workstation I had built many years ago for a customer that then closed down and returned the station to me because he couldn’t bear to see it scrapped.
Over the years I have repurposed this workstation many times and it sure has come in handy. It looks as if this might be it’s final and best assignment.

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Now all the components are centrally located and protected in the bottom of the work station, and will be easier to access and troubleshoot as well.
I still have a few loose ends to address on the workstation, but the machine is now useable.

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The only bummer is, I had to do all that work just so I could do the next round of modifications to the machine. 🙄 Hopefully I will get to that soon.

Originally posted on: October 8, 2024 at 5:01 pm
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