It's tech week! Cheap plasma tracer

Well I thought I had beter throw my hat in the ring, those tools are just plumb bitchin! lets give a big hand to the folks at baliegh for doing this, super cool!!!

I had used this plasma tracer that I built a few years ago in my build thread and several people wanted more info so I blew it apart and took photos of the details.The dimentions are not that important because I built mine out of mostly what was in the scrap pile, and it was made to fit an existing table. I don't believe that I have more than $40 into it so if you can afford a plasma cutter I would definatly recomend building one, It is just too handy!

I started out with a mast made from a heavy piece if water pipe, and fabbed a bracket that would let me adjust the height of the tip as needed for different prodjects, and this has been important, it is held onto my welding table with two 1/2 bolts so it can be removed when I'm not using it.




next up is the tabs that mount the swing arms, no rocket science here, just some scrap metal, but the holes do need to be paralel to the mast to keep the arm working level threw it's swing.




The sealed bearings are just some alternator bearings I got from work, they cost about a buck a piece, they are held on with a 5/16 bolt and a couple of washers that are there as spacers to keep the arm cups from dragging.



next up is the swing arms, Just figure out what the furthest point that you want to reach and make each arm half that distance. I used 1" square tubing, and it's plenty stiff after cross bracing it.


The bearing cups are just 1" waterpipe that has bee turned out to fit the bearings with some #10 set screws to tighten them up.


Here it is on the mast,



The other arm has mounts that are off set to the side, this allows the arm to fold without binding.






next comes the stylist it's just a machined adapter that holds a hardened steel roll pin, it needs to be as close to the size of cut that your plasma makes so the parts are duplicated to the right size.



and then the holder for the torch, I just used a cut piece of tubing with a pinch bolt, this needs to be mounted so the torch is directly below the stylist(also important to make the parts duplicate correctly).




Next up is the patern holder it is mounted around the mast with a pinch bolt so it can be adjusted for height and location(can be moved to fit on your metal beter) I drilled mine every 1.5" with 1/4" holes to mount the patterns


with the patern holder mounted i cut patterns from 1/4 plywood with the band saw and smooth them on the belt sander the patterns can be test fitted on the project(here is the pattern for the axle brackets on my build project)and then mount them on the pattern holder with long 1/4"bolts and nuts.


I made three adjustable feet from 1/2" bolts that I place under the metal to be cut then adjust them up and down so that I have an 1/8 of an inch hold off with the torch(i'll get pictures of them later) If you are cuting thicker material it is important to use new tips in the plas to keep it from bevel cutting.
I took this video of me cutting some axle brackets (the pattern was already mounted)out of some scrap aluminum just as a demonstration)

Feel free to ask any questions or give comments and sugestions. Thanks and happy tech week!!!!

 

Nice work! Now...if only I had a plasma cutter...

 

just got a plasma and i think i'll be making one of those. thanks for posting.

mike

 

very nice!! i think you should have used a little thicker steel on that table though

 

Very cool I might have to make that.

 

Thanks for sharing the tech. Thats a great tool to have!

 

Awesome! Looks like I have another project on the list!

 

Great post! Thanks.

 

Will show this to the fabricators at work.

 

Impressive! I don't see any reason why this setup couldn't be used with a oxy/propane torch either if you don't have a plasma. Very cool. Now where did I put that list of must make tools for the work shop!!

 

There must be more to it than that!

 

I was kinda thinking the same thing Steve, look pretty simple and great for duplicating parts.

 

very nice.

 

I'm heading to the shop now.Thanks Man.

 

Super nice

 

Thanks for the great comments, It really has been handy, being able to make the parts out of plywood for a trial fit is nice, it's faster to work with and a lot cheaper if you need to scrap it and change it, and once the template fits just burn out a steel part, dress it out and install. Also I save all of my old templates and have used a few of them on other projects.

 

If you open up the torch head, you can tap into the 2 wires that turn the torch on and off and make a simple foot controlled switch that will make it so you don't have to hold the trigger.

 

Thanks for the info, I really like your avitar. how about some more on it?

 

That's what I was thinking, but some times you just have to make due
I've got a sheet metal brake that i built off the outherside of it too.

You probably could, I don't know that i'm talented enough to keep my ducks in a row to do it(can't walk and chew at the same time)

Well I had re-restored my wife's 56 pickup changing everything but 3/4 of the frame, one bed side and 2 fenders, so when I was done I had her old perfectly good running gear, A local farmer asked if I wanted his old 46 chev grain truck for free,I said sure and about six months later had the truck driving again, I drove it to work every day this winter including when it was snowing.

I had considered it but it does't seem to be much of a handycap just using the trigger, so I just left it.

 

Great Tech!

 

Now that is neat.

 

Clever.

 

No sweat, but it only takes a few minutes and frees up your hand, in case you want a sammich while you are cutting

 

Very nice.

 

nice ! i just aquired a plasma , think i'll be building one of these in the near future !

 

Bookmarked for after I get my plasma...

 

I would bet that most HAMB'rs have most of the materials to build one of these in their scrap pile and $10 at the hardware store would net them what they don't have, belive me it's well worth the effort, you will find all sorts of uses for it.

 

Great! Very Cool.

 

Love it dude!!! gotta make me one now!!!! Thanks!

 

Very cool, so your patterns are full size and the stylus is how you account for the width of the kerf? I think I get it, the stylus is the same size as the kerf??