I just bought a second 4x4 Growth Series and I got the water table with the new table. On my old table I had the cutting slats on the same level as the front and rear rails so it was easy to slide my steel into position. Now the steel has to drop down about 3 inches over the front rail with just a few inches of clearance around. How do you load your material. Dropping a 1/4" thick plate into position seems dangerous and now much more difficult. I was shocked when I saw this.
I dont know about shocked, but you can remove the cross bar that ties the two rails together on that end of the table, they are not going anywhere with them secured to the water table.
I was shocked ( I should have said surprised) because I was told to not remove the crossbars because the gantry rails would not stay square. The shocked part is just spending almost 10k and having to redesign what should have been thought through. If you are going to offer a water table but using it makes the table significantly more difficult to use then there is a problem with the design. I would like to see a video about how Torchmate folks load steel plate onto the table with the recess created by the water table placement.
The inside bed of a 4x4 is 55" cutting a 48" sheet that leaves you with 3.5" clearance all the way around. I give props to you for loading a 1/4" sheet by hand, we use a forklift and drop it in place.
I use a hand crank fork lift made by Vermette. Got it well used but for a good deal. Pic is not of mine but essentially same.
It was easy to lean the steel against the table and slide it onto the surface. I had my cutting surface flush with the front rail. Now there is a 3 1/2 drop down into the water table area. Much more difficult, not sure how a fork lift would help. Maybe mine came set up differently from yours.
The front cutting edge is tight against the front rail. I have extra room in the room but no clearance in the front. I would be curious to see h0w your table is set up. Are you using the watertable. My old table did not have one and it was much easier to load. This feels like an accident waiting to happen.
We have the same table as you in our shop, 4x4 with water table. I measured 55 front to back inside extruded aluminum to inside and 56 side to side inside guide rail.
when your table is at the front left corner are you outside your cutting area. On mine, I have to move 3 inches towards the rear to be able to drop the torch down towards the water table. This is where I am losing cutting area.
Yes you are outside of your cutting area when you are jogged into the hard stops. Datum is defined at the lower left corner of your sheet, from there it sets soft limits to define a 4x4 cutting area, this is user definable not hard coded into the software very easily changed under Machine Settings. Side to side you should have plenty of room as the 4x4 table was designed with a platemarker in mind. Front to back it is at or very close to full 48".
that is the challenge, front to back there is very little clearance for your fingers to drop in a piece of plate and the gantry's are in the way on the sides. Still havent heard how others load a 1/4" x 48" x 48" without getting hurt or jamming the still into the supports on the the water table. I know this sounds lame, but being able to use it everyday is why we bought this table. It seems that for folks that only cut occassionally it doesnt matter but for commercial use it does not seem to work. I would love to see a TM video of one of their employees loading a piece of plate.
When I said from to back was very close to 48" I was referring to machine travel where it can actually cut as you have to account for the overhang of the torch as well as the width of the gantry. There is still 55" between the extruded aluminum, inside dimensions, that gives you 7" that is a far cry from a pinch point, no pun intended
My guess is the 'lip' that makes it difficult to load material was added to retain sparks etc. I can't see why a modified rail couldn't be made and installed to allow loading from the front.
I have customers install boat rollers on the front for easy loading on their GS machines. that 80/20 comes in handy...
