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Arcdroid plasma

SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
I'm going to bet that you 'THINK' you figured it out, :grinpimp:
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This. The basics of Fusion360 aren't terribly hard to pick up to draw some simple shapes. The questions start when you have to alter the design or have some more complex shapes. Even with a simple square with holes set in from the four corners for a baseplate can go all wonky if you try to enlarge it by 20% if you didn't draw it correctly (Why is it now a parallelogram? Why did the holes enlarge 20% too? I just wanted the plate 20% larger and the holes to stay the same size and inset from the corners the same distance. Etc, etc, etc...).

CarterKraft said:
I'm not sure the tracing feature is as useful as it seems although it definitely could be in the right applications.
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I'd be curious how the trace comes in? Is it like the "draw" feature in CAD or Illustrator where you end up with a squiggly line of thousands of segments? If so, I agree that it will likely be of limited actual use compared to just drawing things or tracing an image in CAD.
 
PAToyota said:
This. The basics of Fusion360 aren't terribly hard to pick up to draw some simple shapes. The questions start when you have to alter the design or have some more complex shapes. Even with a simple square with holes set in from the four corners for a baseplate can go all wonky if you try to enlarge it by 20% if you didn't draw it correctly (Why is it now a parallelogram? Why did the holes enlarge 20% too? I just wanted the plate 20% larger and the holes to stay the same size and inset from the corners the same distance. Etc, etc, etc...).



I'd be curious how the trace comes in? Is it like the "draw" feature in CAD or Illustrator where you end up with a squiggly line of thousands of segments? If so, I agree that it will likely be of limited actual use compared to just drawing things or tracing an image in CAD.
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Doesn't the arcdroid have conversational programming in it, so simple shit (gussets, base plates etc.) would just be a few clicks to get what you want vs actually drawing, Cam-ing etc.

With LinuxCNC conversational you can do a fair bit of work with out ever opening a cad program but I prefer to do it the long way so I don't forget how to do it.

Browsing the site the "Extender" is pretty reasonable and get's to 48" capacity.
1727271730598.png
 
Doesn't seem like it has conversational, this vid shows how to program a part manually but IMO that is not easier or faster than using normal CAD/CAM method.

 
For me, the CAD side of things is not a problem, I work with a variety of 3d programs every day, I don't work specifically in CAD/CAM programs for CNC stuff all that often, but often enough to be comfortable making whatever I need to make.

I'm more concerned that the arcdroid will be more or less a toy that will be too fiddly to actually use when I need to cut something up, end up cutting multiple times to get 1 good piece and i'll just sit on the shelf collecting dust because I don't want to mess with it and just cut something out by hand. Seems like all of the reviews of it are very much "it's awesome!" or "it's junk!". I guess it depends on if you're using it every day, or just every now and then.
 
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dnsfailure said:
For me, the CAD side of things is not a problem, I work with a variety of 3d programs every day, I don't work specifically in CAD/CAM programs for CNC stuff all that often, but often enough to be comfortable making whatever I need to make.

I'm more concerned that the arcdroid will be more or less a toy that will be too fiddly to actually use when I need to cut something up, end up cutting multiple times to get 1 good piece and i'll just sit on the shelf collecting dust because I don't want to mess with it and just cut something out by hand. Seems like all of the reviews of it are very much "it's awesome!" or "it's junk!". I guess it depends on if you're using it every day, or just every now and then.
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Going Hard Plumbing uses the fuck out of theirs and makes some pretty detailed pieces. Reviews are hit and miss on products like that and should be taken with a grain of salt. There are a lot of morons out there that blame a product for their stupidity...
 
SLOWPOKE693 said:
Going Hard Plumbing uses the fuck out of theirs and makes some pretty detailed pieces. Reviews are hit and miss on products like that and should be taken with a grain of salt. There are a lot of morons out there that blame a product for their stupidity...
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yeah, that's true
 
I skimmed through some of the grind hard plumbing videos from the past year or two, seems like they are pretty successfully using it.
 
If grindhard is faking it they're getting paid a boatload of cash to create videos for the sole purpose of getting paid by ArcDroid.

I don't know about the rest of y'all but you could hardly pay me to put up with a pain in the ass tool when I'm trying to accomplish something.
 
CarterKraft said:
If grindhard is faking it they're getting paid a boatload of cash to create videos for the sole purpose of getting paid by ArcDroid.

I don't know about the rest of y'all but you could hardly pay me to put up with a pain in the ass tool when I'm trying to accomplish something.
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No way they are faking it, they show that machine in use way to much for it to be a quirky piece of shit.
 
I cut 27 4x6 plates out of 10ga this weekend on my ULTRA low buck CNC table using pre cut drops on 24" width and 48" long.
It took more work than setting up a 4x8 sheet on a big table but it worked great,

My table built by a newb has no quirks, it can sit in my shop for weeks un used and I can fire it up, draw parts on its Linux confuser and be cutting in 10 minutes.

Even watch YouTube videos of how to draw shit while I'm drawing it on the same computer.
But my 32 inch by 32-in capacity table takes up easily 4 ft by 4 ft of precious shop space.

As you can see in grindhards videos their actual table takes up very little space easily half of mine.
 
CarterKraft said:
I cut 27 4x6 plates out of 10ga this weekend on my ULTRA low buck CNC table using pre cut drops on 24" width and 48" long.
It took more work than setting up a 4x8 sheet on a big table but it worked great,

My table built by a newb has no quirks, it can sit in my shop for weeks un used and I can fire it up, draw parts on its Linux confuser and be cutting in 10 minutes.

Even watch YouTube videos of how to draw shit while I'm drawing it on the same computer.
But my 32 inch by 32-in capacity table takes up easily 4 ft by 4 ft of precious shop space.

As you can see in grindhards videos their actual table takes up very little space easily half of mine.
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Space is the exact reason I like the Arc-droid. I dont need or have the space for a dedicated table and if I did I'd want at least a 4x8 plasma table and I know it would take up a shitload of room.


Edit: I guess asking if you can cut me some 4' rocker guards out of 1/8" plate for the KRX is out of the question. :laughing:
 
SLOWPOKE693 said:
Space is the exact reason I like the Arc-droid. I dont need or have the space for a dedicated table and if I did I'd want at least a 4x8 plasma table and I know it would take up a shitload of room.


Edit: I guess asking if you can cut me some 4' rocker guards out of 1/8" plate for the KRX is out of the question. :laughing:
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Technically I could cut them if I index the plate but I haven't attempted that yet :homer:
 
If I didn't have better uses for the money they cost (and just paying someone else to plasma cut stuff wasn't so cheap) I'd seriously consider mounting an arc droid vertically. The arm style construction would get way less out of whack from that sort of installation than a gantry machine would but they're also so much smaller that you gain less from doing that.
 
arse_sidewards said:
If I didn't have better uses for the money they cost (and just paying someone else to plasma cut stuff wasn't so cheap) I'd seriously consider mounting an arc droid vertically. The arm style construction would get way less out of whack from that sort of installation than a gantry machine would but they're also so much smaller that you gain less from doing that.
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Not that it couldn't be done with a custom build, but I highly doubt the servos on the Arcdroid could handle being mounted vertically. In fact, even with a custom a build, that would take some seriously skilled tuning to keep them happy with the length of the arms and load on the servos constantly changing. Now a vertically mounted gantry style machine would be sweet for space savings - if you could figure out how to keep the stock flat.
 
Y
bgaidan said:
Not that it couldn't be done with a custom build, but I highly doubt the servos on the Arcdroid could handle being mounted vertically. In fact, even with a custom a build, that would take some seriously skilled tuning to keep them happy with the length of the arms and load on the servos constantly changing. Now a vertically mounted gantry style machine would be sweet for space savings - if you could figure out how to keep the stock flat.
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You see CrankTown City on youtube?
Not a small table though.

IMO no need to fuck with changing the arcdroid, put it on a bench for cutting, store it under for not,

Ty on Cleetus' video yesterday used onde at home to cut some aluminum brackets for the AWD Dale truck build.
 
bgaidan said:
Not that it couldn't be done with a custom build, but I highly doubt the servos on the Arcdroid could handle being mounted vertically. In fact, even with a custom a build, that would take some seriously skilled tuning to keep them happy with the length of the arms and load on the servos constantly changing. Now a vertically mounted gantry style machine would be sweet for space savings - if you could figure out how to keep the stock flat.
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The arms on the arc droid are fixed length. That's what makes it work as well as it does. The little arm fills in all the unswept space of the big arm like a jointed faucet on a commercial sink. Since the lengths are fixed you could simply counterweight them.

I'm far more worried about gantry getting weird up as it tries to traverse up and down as the load moves side to side. They have enough problems with alignment when sitting flat.

Regardless, I do so little volume that I'm fine with SendCutSend.
 
arse_sidewards said:
The arms on the arc droid are fixed length. That's what makes it work as well as it does. The little arm fills in all the unswept space of the big arm like a jointed faucet on a commercial sink. Since the lengths are fixed you could simply counterweight them.

I'm far more worried about gantry getting weird up as it tries to traverse up and down as the load moves side to side. They have enough problems with alignment when sitting flat.

Regardless, I do so little volume that I'm fine with SendCutSend.
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I fully understand how the arcdroid move. The position of the load on the arm is constantly changing and there would never be a stable load on the ratoary servo. There's no way to avoid it in a SCARA setup like that. A counterweight won't fix it. The servo on the arcdroid is probably sized perfecly to work in a horizontal setup where it's not fighting gravity. I'd put a zero percent chance that it could maintain any type of accuracy mounted vertically, if it could even function at all.

A vertical gantry with ballscrews will be 100x more stable and reliable than what you're suggesting.
 
There is a reason you don't see those things anywhere
the idea is great, I can't imagine the nightmare that they would be to work with
 
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SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
There is a reason you don't see those things anywhere
the idea is great, I can't imagine the nightmare that they would be to work with
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I think the market on it is pretty narrow

It's more expensive than a small Langmuir table
It's cut space limited

So you are looking at a market for people who can afford to drop $2500 on a plasma CNC, but don't have the space to just go with a 4x4 or bigger table. I'm in that boat with space, but the price is just a little high for me based on needs. If it was $1000-1400 like the Langmuir I would have one.
 
kf4zht said:
I think the market on it is pretty narrow

It's more expensive than a small Langmuir table
It's cut space limited

So you are looking at a market for people who can afford to drop $2500 on a plasma CNC, but don't have the space to just go with a 4x4 or bigger table. I'm in that boat with space, but the price is just a little high for me based on needs. If it was $1000-1400 like the Langmuir I would have one.
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I think hes saying the market is narrow for the vertical table.
 
CarterKraft said:
I think hes saying the market is narrow for the vertical table.
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Duh, makes sense

I think a signficant issue is going to be more wear at the bottom - gravity is going to put everything with one edge at the bottom of the table and the guides, screws and slats will take more wear as a result. With a normal table you can move the start around to use all the table or if one part of the slats is too worn.
 
kf4zht said:
Duh, makes sense

I think a signficant issue is going to be more wear at the bottom - gravity is going to put everything with one edge at the bottom of the table and the guides, screws and slats will take more wear as a result. With a normal table you can move the start around to use all the table or if one part of the slats is too worn.
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that isn't even it, just material handling alone will be a nightmare
not to mention everything that is going to be a drop, will translate to a jam unless you are there to catch it.
and.....having to leave little tabs to your parts to make sure they are still in place for the whole cut would be enough to throw the whole machine in the trash
You might get away with making it work doing art fair trinkets, but there is just no way for me that I would want that thing
 
Throw a piece of steel on it and it's a workbench.
 
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