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Check out the subreddit: tinyurl.com/smhere
Plasma cutting is incredibly useful. Paired with bending and welding it is often the fastest and cheapest way to build any kind of mechanical structure or enclosure. Results that might take a day on a 3D printer or on a CNC mill can be achieved in minutes on a plasma cutter. Not to mention the cost of sheet metal is a lot cheaper than 3D printer materials or billet for machining. I'm constantly making folded and welded structures with my plasma cutter and every time I have the same problem. I will design a complicated folded part and then when I go to bend it I can't place the bends accurately. I'll spend a lot of time trying to measure them out but the plasma cutter can make any arbitrary shape which can make measuring difficult.
To solve this problem I designed and built a pen plotter head for my plasma cutter. It allows me to first draw all of the bend lines then cut out the part. This gives me perfectly registered bend locations that make folding the parts really easy.
This video details how I designed it and how it works.
These videos usually take a ton of work and a lot of money in tools and materials. I've made a patreon if you're interested in supporting the creation of these projects: www.patreon.com/stuffmadehere
Here's some of the tools that I use in this video:
Retractable sharpies: amzn.to/2XLNYzI
Air solenoid valves: amzn.to/3apr57Y
Pneumatic Cylinder: amzn.to/3exLbjG
Vise brake (highly recommend): amzn.to/3akCkhZ
Wera allen keys 1000x better than el cheapos: amzn.to/2KlCb36
Wera allen keys (english): amzn.to/2RQUxNG
Hypertherm powermax 45xp with machine torch: amzn.to/2zfoyAv
Hypertherm fine cut consumables (great for sheet metal) amzn.to/34SjMom
100mm linear stage for plasma Z axis - easier than building: amzn.to/3cAeEb3
Downdraft fans - these things chooch!: amzn.to/2VKFbM5
The best marker ever. Always in my pocket: amzn.to/3ewHGtL
Drag chains: amzn.to/2VFDXSf
"computer startup sound" sound from freesound.org/people/bigmanjo... is licensed under CC BY 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Check out the subreddit: tinyurl.com/smhere
Plasma cutting is incredibly useful. Paired with bending and welding it is often the fastest and cheapest way to build any kind of mechanical structure or enclosure. Results that might take a day on a 3D printer or on a CNC mill can be achieved in minutes on a plasma cutter. Not to mention the cost of sheet metal is a lot cheaper than 3D printer materials or billet for machining. I'm constantly making folded and welded structures with my plasma cutter and every time I have the same problem. I will design a complicated folded part and then when I go to bend it I can't place the bends accurately. I'll spend a lot of time trying to measure them out but the plasma cutter can make any arbitrary shape which can make measuring difficult.
To solve this problem I designed and built a pen plotter head for my plasma cutter. It allows me to first draw all of the bend lines then cut out the part. This gives me perfectly registered bend locations that make folding the parts really easy.
This video details how I designed it and how it works.
These videos usually take a ton of work and a lot of money in tools and materials. I've made a patreon if you're interested in supporting the creation of these projects: www.patreon.com/stuffmadehere
Here's some of the tools that I use in this video:
Retractable sharpies: amzn.to/2XLNYzI
Air solenoid valves: amzn.to/3apr57Y
Pneumatic Cylinder: amzn.to/3exLbjG
Vise brake (highly recommend): amzn.to/3akCkhZ
Wera allen keys 1000x better than el cheapos: amzn.to/2KlCb36
Wera allen keys (english): amzn.to/2RQUxNG
Hypertherm powermax 45xp with machine torch: amzn.to/2zfoyAv
Hypertherm fine cut consumables (great for sheet metal) amzn.to/34SjMom
100mm linear stage for plasma Z axis - easier than building: amzn.to/3cAeEb3
Downdraft fans - these things chooch!: amzn.to/2VKFbM5
The best marker ever. Always in my pocket: amzn.to/3ewHGtL
Drag chains: amzn.to/2VFDXSf
"computer startup sound" sound from freesound.org/people/bigmanjo... is licensed under CC BY 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/...
It’s amazing how much effort someone will put into avoiding just having to removing a cap
@Shinji391 no he did this for views.
Laziness is a powerful motivator for design.
He must have been a defense contractor at some point.
He put in some unnecessary effort because only 2 positions were needed rather than 3. You could pull up to toggle whether the tip is out and push down to either write (if the tip is currently out) or rest (if the tip is currently retracted). Or did he need more than 1 tips' worth of clearance for some reason?
Yeah. He could have done it a ton of ways. He just choose to do the mechanical method.
10:00 a tip I learned from an electrician. At the beginning run a rope through the rig to pull your cable. Instead of pulling just the rope and cable through, attach a second rope behind the first with the cable. Then you will have a rerun rope every time for the next pull. Assuming of course the conduit isn’t full.
@Stormfather that works. We used pully sustems like that to pull cable in data centers where we had to run cables down tray over and over.
Seems like you could just have one big rope in a loop, and then temporarily attach any other cable to it and pull it through
It is admirable that he does this for a living and then still has time and energy to do fun stuff off hours. Thank you for sharing your skills!
this is what he does for a living
One thing I learned going to school to be a sheet metal worker, was having the plasma cutter pause for a minute at the point where you want to break so it creates a small notch, All you have to do is line the notches up and boom a point to bend at.
You also could lower the power on the cutter to simply mark the metal.
@Mattao Martinez. amen brother hahaha.
@matthew mattes lol we are gifts from god.
@Mattao Martinez. is your name as satisfying to write as mine?
@Mattao Martinez. that's pretty much its best use. That sharpie line isn't really thin enough to be super accurate but he could probably figure out a way to fit a scribe pen into the same mechanism
Having the intelligence to do something like this is extremely rare. Having the will to do it almost never seen. I wish I had the will and the resolve that this man has. Thank you for your hard work.
It's amazing to see how much he evolved, and how his shop expanded with so many more tools. He came a long way, and I think all of us are proud of him.
Was thinking the same thing. One thing I noticed hasn't changed is his ability to share knowledge. Most people that smart tend to say incomprehensible things. He literally worked for FormLabs to make that resin print, and when explaining it he doesn't mention any technical terms, not even resin. He really is remarkable
I keep re-watching these videos because I find them super fun and inspiring and even though Shane posts regularly there just isn't enough new content fast enough :)
m2
I did something similar on my table but with a carbide scribe with replaceable inserts. It has a compression spring on the z axis to compensate for material height inconsistencies. On 304ss or aluminum it works great. On hot rolled steel I need to run the g code a few times over to get through the mill scale. It makes for a very accurate bend line. Love your channel, you are one smart dude!
Loving your videos so far. This Old Tony has some serious competition now! I'm not an engineer, I just had a heap of casual jobs in steel fabrication through my life. You can thank Dusten for the collaborate baseball bat video for me finding your channel. Great content. Keep it coming :)
IDEA: You could score the metal with a pointy tool, rather than drawing on it with a Sharpie. That would probably simplify the mechanics needed to make it work, and eliminate the "thickness" of your lines.
@NG Wouldn't plasma etching risk significantly changing the steel temper and/or strength?
Those servos would survive that. Scoring metal won't help that much unless they are deep.
@Mike kinard if you have a static load yes, but with dynamic loads even small imperfections in the surface can significantly reduce the time to failure
I would use that blue stuff to scribe the lines or if you just used a regular scribe tool like when you're marking on a lathe. It's just a fine surface scratch it's not going to effect the strength of the metal or add any extra stress. Also with all the money he spent to get all those different CNC Machines, you would think that he would own a bending machine
A ballpoint pen will put a barely noticeable line anywhere with little pressure. We would write combinations on the back of locks with Bic pens and you had to know to look for them.
Thank you for making stuff, your builds are amazing. Over my head, but amazing. For more bracket and captured nut madness check out guys at Bad obsession motorsports, specifically project binky - let's just say they are the analog version of your work.
Can you include cad videos? I love watching projects that yield final results in the videos. A readable timelapse that's not too fast would be amazing.
Hi... your videos are truly inspiring, innovative and with a crazy amount of engineering .. one very small suggestion is that you could use a 5/3 mid position exhaust solenoid valve + check valve crosspiloting (to stop wherever u want in the middle using just logic) instead of a 5/2 and not worry about using external springs totally... I can draw up a pneumatic circuit if you would like .. Anyways thanks for all the creative videos.. :)
That was some high-quality word play. "This made the problem of decapitating the pen retractable."
Awesome build! If you tie a string to your green ground wire and pull it back thru the wire track you can route a fishing wire to pull multiple wires back thru instead of removing the caps .
9:52 you already have cables that go through the Energy Chain, so you can attach a long auxiliary Rope to the end of one cable A, you pull out the cable A (and the rope also goes through), then you tie the new cable B to the same end of the Rope where the cable A is already attached... so then you pull back the rope with both cables, and voilà!
When I was a CNC operator at a fabrication shop, I would use a Sharpie to layout the cut locations on sheets prior to cutting. I'm loving that someone else does this on a whole different level!
1:45 Just model in small bend notches to see where the bend lines are when forming. (If external bend notch, grind off the mark afterwards. Use internal bend notches where the visual looks are not important.
Very very brilliant and time saving idea well done. I was thinking that maybe instead of the pen, you may can fit a Laser engraving head . In my opinion it will mark much more precise guide lines for bending and would eliminate the wear on the tip of the pen also :) Well done for all your videos , very interesting to watch
Hey mate, Absolutely loving your videos watching them consecutively as we speak. if you notice this comment than it may help you or someone else that finds routing cables or tubes frustrating. I've laid cable in conduit professionally and all you have to do is feed a rope through once. Leave it there for the next time you return. tie or tape on the cable or tube you want to feed through and also a new piece of rope to go along with it so when you pull said cable or tube through you also have another piece of rope that has reset it ready for the next installation, in your case the distance is so short it most likely will result without having to remove any of the plates. I know this information is miniscule but its the little tricks of the trade that make the biggest difference, As you would know sir.
Instead of having to draw the bend line with a sharpie, you could just cut a couple of grooves where the bend should be. This would make the bending easier and if you're welding it anyway I think it would have little impact in the overall strength. Though I really do like the idea and design of this sharpie setup c",)
Great idea. Thank you for posting this.. I didn't know those pens existed.. Had been recapping at the end of sessions. Have been using a spring loaded holder to moderate pen pressure. Pneumatic retractor Is simple yet effective. Nicely done.
For the cable routing through the sleeve, keep a plastic wire routed there. When you want to route a new cable, connect another plastic wire and the wanted cable to it. Pull from the other side, and you'll have your new cable and another "routing wire" routed, ready for the next time!
Very nice :) I have a question did you also consider to use lead screw and pneumatic stepping motor ?
I’m just amazed at the way his brain works. Like I understand that once anyone becomes very knowledgeable about something they can do great things, but this seems different. It’s the awareness that it’s unnecessary, but the cleverness to make it legitimately useful or something like that. Idk man I’m not even smart enough to explain how I think he’s smart😂
5:30 you could also use two cylinders one as a stop for the one that moves the pen. Extend the stop and the pen will only move to the stop.
For your pneumatic control I’m thinking you may have been able to use two 2/2 valves AND quick exhaust valves at the actuator port
about those wires in the wire guide, when i used to do networking cables for a server room that kept changing, i always had a piece of rope put through along with a new cable. i could use that piece of rope to pull another cable and piece of rope in the future without undoing ducting. might be an idea for you on some machines. nice vids you make :)
I make parts like this from laser-cut aluminum, I always put rows of holes or slots along the bend lines. I don't have a bending brake, but the holes make hand-bending really easy. The parts are slightly weaker, but the problem of where to bend is eliminated and accuracy is great.
Great idea & interesting video, question: is there any reason why pen extension / retraction couldn't have been done using a servo? The air cylinder + gubbins seems a little intimidating to the uninitiated...
Regarding stringing cable chain on the plasma: Next time you have to add a wire, tape another piece of scrap wire or cable and push both through. Then the next time you have to add a wire, take another wire scrap and tape both to the first scrap piece and pull through, leaving you with another pull wire for future mods. Rinse and repeat (:
@Klaus Brinck the i never learn was referring to the fact that it would be faster to take the plates off than struggle with it every time
Elechicken here to tell you to use the ground wire as a drag. Hell I should be the youtube troll of AvE's friend dewcalw!!
Jet line! Always pull at least one extra in your ling runs.
I do this every time I pull a wire. It has saved me from pulling out much of my hair.
That was useless, his first sentence after explaining the hustle, was to tell that he´ll "never learn"... ;-) I think, that he thinks of it every time, but is always too lazy to go the extra mile, pushing a 2nd line through, along with the 1st one...
Amazed by all the engineering here! One quick tip that might help with future cable routing in your cable guides. Use a flexible sheet metal fish tape. You can attach various heads (small plastic 3d printed ball for example) so that it won't catch in all the crevices. Then use it to pull a nylon pull string. Whenever you pull something thru with your pull string, attach a second pull string along with it - so you still have one for next time!
Really awesome design. Did you ever consider a cam-follower concept to engage and disengage the pen ?
This is awesome. At my job we often do projects which involve cutting hundreds or thousands of unique parts. Sometimes they can be engraved by a cutter to mark part numbers or index marks. but depending on the material, sometimes this is not possible. If only our cutting suppliers embraced your tech!
Great video, project, and your skills are wonderful. possible feed for chain guard, have a line already installed and use it to pull your wanted line with another pull length so after completed install there will be another pull line always installed.
Note, you can just put springs inside the bore of an air cylinder, and not have to worry about a separate mount. The end caps should just thread off and let you stick it in there. I used this trick building a pneumatic 3-speed gearbox and it saved a lot of space and mechanical complexity.
This is a genius little hint.
Your videos rock. So much goes into them -- editing, thought, humor, troubleshooting, more editing... -- amazing!
Ok, I'm subscribed. I love seeing how people go about solving these types of challenges. Also, you've probably thought it out already and solved it the way that works best for you, but in my line of work, we often use a second cylinder to shuttle an intermediate stop into position.
How do you calculate the rigidity of folded structures? Do you use FEM programs or is it iterational? Edit: also love your videos, keep going💪🏼💪🏼
It is so fun and interesting to watch you state a problem and then work through it. Great work!
Nice! I've put a sharpie in the toolholder on a mill (or the live tooling on a lathe) too. CNC line-drawing comes in super handy for sure.
9:50 As a fellow CNC operator there is a simple solution to this particular problem. Mine just so happens to be 250 lbs. fly line backer. Fly line backer is braided line perhaps 3/32” in diameter and is relatively slick in nature. It is super easy to install also. Just tie it to one of your previously installed cables in the cable tray then disconnect and pull out the cable. Mark the fly line 4” below the point where the line stopped feeding back into the cable tray. Then pull the additional line out through the tray until you get to the mark. Tie a small weight to the other end of the line. Reattach the cable to the fly line ABOVE the mark on the line and pull the weight to ‘fish’ your cable back into position. Installation of this line should take less time than me typing out these instructions. I use a bent paper clip to secure the one end to the flex cable tray and a simple bread tie to gather up the excess at the other end of the tray.
Fantastic video.. I’m a telecoms technician and enjoyed learning something new. Thank you so much for sharing.😎👍🏆 P.S you definitely earned my sub.👍
Man you were talented dude! You just got yourself another subscriber. I wish I had all the tools you have available. Keep up the great videos.
You invented the Cricut plasma cutter! You'll make a killing licensing this to them and cosplayers will be upping their game 😁 I just found your channel and watched all your videos. Your one of the best new discoveries I've seen in quite a while. You have a great presentation style with just the right balance of explanation and demonstration. I'm looking forward to seeing what's up next!
@ZLP TM My guess is that the part is modeled in a CAD software then a software tool is used to convert it into a 2 dimensional fold-out where the bend lines are defined on the overlay.
@Stuff Made Here Hello there, I have a question. How does the system know what is defined as a bend? Unless I missed it, you didnt go into details about the software at all :(
@Stuff Made Here possibly a mill? you couldn't do hard metals but it'd do plastics and such easily i'd assume.
You forgot humor. His balance of humor is getting there. He needs a TOT time machine.
@Stuff Made Here Screw post spot welder maybe?
awesome video! I wonder if you can just keep a double+ length aircraft cable in your energy chain. That way you can attach a new cable to it and pull/lead the new cable through. keep the acc from getting pulled past reaching and you can always use it easy peasy again without rethreading it.
Smart! Have you also considered using a step motor to raise and lower the maker?
Put your springs inside the actuator. Great video, the bend tangent lines are an awesome feature, did you use any k values or just centered?
the amount of detail in the video, congrats man. subbed for sure. now if only i could make stuff like this outta metal, most ive done is wood and 3d prints
5:27 You could also apply air into both ports on the air cylinder at the same time and make it stay or go in any amount. Equal pressure on both sides it will go center.
So complex, yet so simple. Amazing, really.
You just know how to build all the things I wish I knew how to build. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, these videos are great.
i love that he always knows when going into detail might be a lil boring for some viewers. but i wish he would go into detail and speed it up 4x so that if we wanna hear more we can slow it down to 0.25x and listen to the details
what program are you using for your plasma table? Is it as simple as adding another "tool head" to the program and having it activate the switch for the air line anytime that tool head is used? I would love to know how you made the dxf side of this to work. Also, I want to see the tree climbing robot as well. Love the channel. Subscribed! I plan to start making some videos in a year or so after finishing Mech. Engineering degree.
late reply, but im pretty sure what hes doing is just adding the offset to the precise coordinates it needs to start/cut
Very well done, you could use a centre punch/scribe for a fine line and punch for drill holes.
you could add/remove the pen cap using the same technics they use for tool changers. swappable tools remain somewhere within the range of the machine.
As a sheetmetal worker myself, that's a brilliant idea Well done
Most of my building is done with hand tools so I’m a bit envious but the things I build are relatively simple. I’m most curious about the fiddle you showed. Looks like a Gayford but I couldn’t get a good look at the scroll. Looking forward to what you do with that.
The correct valve for that would be a 5 way 3 position with a center exhaust. The center position with no voltage applied to the solenoids would let the cylinder float letting the springs do their job to center the cylinder.
The correct valve is the one you already own :-)
Just discovered this from Destin’s channel. Been binge watching. So COOL. The amount of times I went “oh wow that’s ingenious” at every single little solution in each video is too high!
You could leave a spare cable or a wire in the energy chains so it can serve as a guide you can use for future expansion :)
You are amazing at what you do, i wish I could could work for you and learn everything you know. BRILLIANT!
As someone who works with a cnc cutter all the time , I wonder why this isn’t an option from the manufacture. GREAT IDEA
Very interesting video. Enjoyed every minute
Build Something Cool: Very interesting video. Enjoyed every minute Me who have'nt watched the video yet: Is this a pun?
You new?
Too bad TikTok came out and now most people who used TikTok for more than a month have 10 seconds of focus a day
I liked all the minutes except the 14th
@juan gonzalez "m8" you're sarcasm sounded like hate. I am sorry, tootsie pop.
Great mod! I've ben jamming sharpies into the plotter at work for 17 years to generate neon bending patterns. A full sharpie doesn't fit- you can put almost a 90° bend into the reservoir before it splits, but they also make the shorties.
Hey Stuff Made Here, I was wondering, if I wanted to do cool stuff like this, what should I learn? I see you do coding and you know how to make and design these parts. I like learning, and I would like to learn how I could be able to do stuff like you do. It seems like you know just what to do in a given situation, like when you got that machine down into your shop and was using a bunch of rope and stuff. I want to have some of the same knowledge you have.
Good Job! Kudos for the great brain work and awesome setup!
Pro tip for conduit and "energy chains" run your first cable with a strong twine like rope. Then you can pull your next wire through and another strand of rope. Always have a pull rope that way. Takes just a few seconds to tape and untape as necessary.
You're missing a loop of string that's going all the way through the energy chain. Then you could tie the end of the next thing somewhere on the loop and pull it through
Thought about doing something similar to lay out a PCB (for a self etching kit) on a bridgeport CNC. I would've had to raise and lower the sharpie manually, the machines I was going to use are just 2 axis.
Woah, I want to learn more about that 3d printer filament. It was stiff AND flexible!
Just found your channel today... Outstanding work! Can't wait to see what'cha got going forward!! 👍🏻🥃
You know I never watch videos without skipping or upping the speed. However, I watched every minute of your video and didn't feel the need to skip once. I also rarely subscribe, I just had to subscribe halfway through the video because I will watch pretty much anything you make from now on. Not only this is a freaking genius idea, but you're also very talented in making videos. Thank you!