How to make a CNC plasma cutter with high-frequency start

The issue with high-frequency start ("HF start") on plasma cutters is that igniting the pilot arc creates an enormous amount of electromagnetic interference which causes problems for nearby electronics, in particular tending to disconnect the USB connection to your CNC motion controller. You can solve this by talking to the motion controller over WiFi. This is my machine in its temporary location on the workbench: If you still need to acquire a plasma cutter then I obviously recommend trying to get one with "blowback start" instead of "HF start" so that you don't have to worry about it. In acquiring a machine with HF start I made an error. But I got it to work anyway, so if you already have an HF start machine and you want to use it for CNC, you might be able to do the same thing. I kind of wanted a CNC plasma cutter because I have recently spent lots of time and end mills making planar parts like this for my cyclecar at excruciatingly low feed rates and depths of cut: So I started…

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