Oxyfuel on a Plasma Table
Updated v2.4.8At a glance
- An oxyfuel torch bolted beside the plasma torch is one machine, not two profiles
- Add Oxyfuel as a process on the plasma machine — General → Processes → Add
- It shares the table's axes, travels, connection and subroutines; you configure those once
- It keeps its own post, torch and cut charts, rules, lead-ins, nesting spacing and quote rates
- The plasma machine then appears in the Oxyfuel workspace's machine list
- Each post emits its own tool number in the header; the tool library holds the torch offset
- Send to Machine loads onto the table you are actually connected to
Most oxyfuel tables in a fab shop are plasma tables with a flame torch bolted on beside the plasma torch — flame for the thick plate, plasma for everything else, both running off the same gantry.
That is one machine, and JetCad3 treats it as one. You do not build a second machine profile for the oxyfuel torch.
Setting it up
- Open Machine Configuration on your plasma machine → General → Processes → Add Oxyfuel.
- In the new Oxyfuel section, open Post and pick your oxyfuel post. Tick Emit tool
select in header and set the tool number for the oxy torch —
1if the plasma torch is0. - Open Oxyfuel → Torch and select your torch. Its factory cut charts load straight away.
- Back on the Plasma → Post, tick Emit tool select in header with tool number
0. - In the machine's tool library, set tool 1's X/Y offset to the measured distance from the plasma torch to the oxy torch. Tool 0 stays at zero.
Your gas subroutines are already on this machine — subroutines belong to the machine, so they are shared and nothing moves.
The plasma machine now appears in the Oxyfuel workspace's machine dropdown. Select it and cut.
What is shared and what is not
Everything that describes the table is shared and configured once: axes and travels, homing and origin, work offsets, the controller connection, subroutines, hooks and pendant.
Everything that describes the cut stays separate: the post, the torch and its cut charts, contour rules, lead-in and lead-out, nesting part spacing and quoting rates. Flame cutting wants wider part spacing than plasma because the kerf and heat-affected zone are larger, and most shops price it differently — so those numbers stay independent.
Why not two profiles
A second profile means entering the axes, travels, offsets and subroutines twice and keeping them in step forever. Worse, on a machine JetCad3 drives itself it produced a second machine workspace competing for the same controller connection, and posting an oxyfuel job could spool to the profile that was not the connected one. One machine with two processes has one machine workspace and one shared program queue, so Send to Machine always targets the table in front of you.
If you already built a separate oxyfuel profile, add the process to the plasma machine first, then delete the old one — it becomes deletable once the plasma machine covers oxyfuel.
Full details, including router heads and the other combinations, are in Multi-Process Machines.