Plasma Water Tables

[Todd W]

Lets see those water tables.

I plan on making one to use under my plasmacam to work wtih my down draft system. I think this should eliminate the most and the air system will take it out.

Anyone gota ny pics of theirs?

[bigtoy302]

Look at my build in my sig. The water table is built in with the table. One of these days I will get around to finishing it.

[Todd W]

Look at my build in my sig. The water table is built in with the table. One of these days I will get around to finishing it.

I would guess you don't plan on cutting 3/4" to 1"+ ? It seems your water table bottom is not to far under the cutting surface... it would suck to pierce the bottom of it.

I plan to make my water table start approx. 6" under the cutting table, and be around 3-5" deep.

Let me know how it works ocne you get finish :D

[Brad]

I would guess you don't plan on cutting 3/4" to 1"+ ? It seems your water table bottom is not to far under the cutting surface... it would suck to pierce the bottom of it.

I plan to make my water table start approx. 6" under the cutting table, and be around 3-5" deep.

Let me know how it works ocne you get finish :D

Thats about what they had at work and they torch cut 6" thick steel as well as plasma cut on the same CNC table. It was only 3" from bottom of plate to the water and the whole thing was only 10" deep(LOTS of water and a BIG table)

[Todd W]

Thats about what they had at work and they torch cut 6" thick steel as well as plasma cut on the same CNC table. It was only 3" from bottom of plate to the water and the whole thing was only 10" deep(LOTS of water and a BIG table)

You are talking about what I plan to do and not what bigtoy302 did correct? His looks to start where the cutting starts and only ~4" deep.

[Todd W]

Oh, and Brad how was the dust w/the water table? Very minimal ?

[DRM]

Just thinking out loud here, but what if you dropped the table down towards the floor, and use a misting system under the cutting surface to capture more of the dust and drop it into the water tank?

[Todd W]

Just thinking out loud here, but what if you dropped the table down towards the floor, and use a misting system under the cutting surface to capture more of the dust and drop it into the water tank?

I guess you could do that but:

1. What benefit would you have by placing it closer to the floor? If the water table is under it then that's like a floor.

2. You'd need some heavy duty misting setup to handle the sparks and heat created by the cutting.

3. You'd need a way to drain/maintain water levels while cutting as to not overfill with mist water.

4. What benefit would the mister provide that a water tray only system would not?

If you are wanting to get the particles missed by the water tray then the exhaust system should have that covered right?

I got to thinking about my exhaust system and was thinking it would be cool to have the exhaust suck in the middle of the water tray. Maybe elevate a 12"x12" area of the water tray and have it suck down from all the edges... pulling it towards the middle may allow more pieces to fall in the water?

[Bruce T]

I built one for my pcam before my vacuum table. What a pain in the dick. Mine was the full size of the table and about 6-7 inches deep with 5-6 inches of water in it and about 2 inches below the bottom of the grate. It did nothing for dust and smoke but it did catch all the sparks. I wanted it to capture dust and smoke. All the little pieces fell in and was a pain to retrieve and the water evaporates and burns off faster than one would think. It becomes very, very heavy with slag and is hard to clean out, at least mine was. When I built a new shop I had a heating and cooling guy build a tin box under my table that funnels to a 3x3 square with a door on one end that I use for cleanout and dropped parts. On the opposite side I have a 12" tube going to a modified home furnace cage fan and from there to a 16x16 wall vent made from metal that opens and closes with the air being turned on. I have the fan motor hooked up to a switch right near the control box so its easy to turn on/off before cutting. It works great! I will never go back and I have very, very little dust anywhere now (as opposed to an inch deep everywhere before) and its very easy to clean ect. I have a friend that tried to build an overhead but it did not work for shit. The smoke gets blown down and it bellows up and around anything overhead. I can email you some pics if you want just hit me with a pm or something.

[Todd W]

I built one for my pcam before my vacuum table. What a pain in the dick. Mine was the full size of the table and about 6-7 inches deep with 5-6 inches of water in it and about 2 inches below the bottom of the grate. It did nothing for dust and smoke but it did catch all the sparks. I wanted it to capture dust and smoke. All the little pieces fell in and was a pain to retrieve and the water evaporates and burns off faster than one would think. It becomes very, very heavy with slag and is hard to clean out, at least mine was. When I built a new shop I had a heating and cooling guy build a tin box under my table that funnels to a 3x3 square with a door on one end that I use for cleanout and dropped parts. On the opposite side I have a 12" tube going to a modified home furnace cage fan and from there to a 16x16 wall vent made from metal that opens and closes with the air being turned on. I have the fan motor hooked up to a switch right near the control box so its easy to turn on/off before cutting. It works great! I will never go back and I have very, very little dust anywhere now (as opposed to an inch deep everywhere before) and its very easy to clean ect. I have a friend that tried to build an overhead but it did not work for shit. The smoke gets blown down and it bellows up and around anything overhead. I can email you some pics if you want just hit me with a pm or something.

Great info :)

[Brad]

Oh, and Brad how was the dust w/the water table? Very minimal ?

Dust/spray from the bottom was very minimal, when cutting A LOT(whole buncha parts from a 4x8 sheet) the fumes got noticeable.Pretty much what you had planned. Cant get a picture for you since I dont work there anymore.

[Todd W]

Well I made my water table holy hell that was fun to weld up 8ft of 20ga and bend 4ft sectiosn w/out a brake :laughing::laughing:

Only 4 pinhole leaks. I think they are small enough that once I prime it and paint it the leaks will stop, they are not visible to the eye... if that doesn't work I`ll add some radiator stop-leak.

45"x48"x6" But with that full of water its near 500lbs SOOO I think I`ll go down to 4" of water and keep it under 300lbs.

I`ll report back tomorrow hope to finish up.
Then i`ll box in the rest of hte table and setup the exhaust system too.

[Clodhopper]

I was in the process of building a water table for my plasma table. I had the pans made and was getting ready to plumb it in when I stumble across some reading about it. The guys that had built them said it didn't help much with regard to dust unless the water was touching the bottom of the plate and then all the maintenance issues. So I put a dish pan in the water tray about where the water level was planned and did some cutting. It didn't do much at all. So I ditched filling the pans. They are nice for collecting slag, small parts and such, so the pans were not a waste of time and money. Consider running a trial before you fill the table up and have to clean it all up again.

[Static-XJ]

I work in a job shop. We've got a 13'x14' burn table with 4 oxy-fuel heads and one plasma torch on it. About a year ago it was decided to build a water table to replace the downdraft system. We built one, it has an air chamber at the bottom underneath the slag containers that is used to adjust the water level. For plasma cuts the operators bring the water level up to just over top of the plate. So the torch is not under water, but the entire cut is. The smoke and dust problem has been eliminated. I'm not sure of the max capacity of the system, but I do know we routinely make plasma cuts in 7/8" plate. I can't speak to weather there is more dross to clean up now vs. before with the downdraft because I'm not the guy unloading and cleaning parts.

[Bruce T]

I work in a job shop. We've got a 13'x14' burn table with 4 oxy-fuel heads and one plasma torch on it. About a year ago it was decided to build a water table to replace the downdraft system. We built one, it has an air chamber at the bottom underneath the slag containers that is used to adjust the water level. For plasma cuts the operators bring the water level up to just over top of the plate. So the torch is not under water, but the entire cut is. The smoke and dust problem has been eliminated. I'm not sure of the max capacity of the system, but I do know we routinely make plasma cuts in 7/8" plate. I can't speak to weather there is more dross to clean up now vs. before with the downdraft because I'm not the guy unloading and cleaning parts.

That would be very tough to do with a plasmacam. I've seen the big shop ones that do this and it does work good but I think the plasma head needs to be made for that enviroment too. Like I said, the water table I made was useless for smoke and dust, which is the problem.

[Todd W]

That would be very tough to do with a plasmacam. I've seen the big shop ones that do this and it does work good but I think the plasma head needs to be made for that enviroment too. Like I said, the water table I made was useless for smoke and dust, which is the problem.

It would be a major PITA to do that with a plasmacam... mainly the problem of sealing the entire bottom of the table and keeping it straight through the welds.

[jays68yak]

Heres ours.

[Todd W]

Do you use stilts to get to the top bins :p

Nice table wish I had th space and bling for that one :)

[jays68yak]

Na, they are all labeled, so you can just reach in and grab what ya need. The lower ones are the ones that arnt 100% sorted and you have to dig through those.

Yeah it eats up a good 2 spaces that we could have cars in, but we can cut some bitchin stuff, repeat it down the road, and have minimal clean up. No more cutting with the hand plasma, or the bandsaw, then clamping and grinding with the grinder.

[Bruce T]

As big a pain in the ass it is to get set up correctly and spend valueable space on I wouldnt trade it for nothing. Mine pays for itself every year and it cant be beat for making cool shit for your own projects.