Adventures in metal cutting

That may be what’s going on.

Just ran down to HF - they were out of these pumps. I’ll wait until they get some more back in - the price is right!

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before you leave the store, open the box to check that its a new pump. When i bought mine i drove off and was heading to home depot to get some supplies so as i was waiting at a red light,i opened the box to check out the pump and it looked used and beat up. turned around and headed back to harbor freight, talked to the cashier that rang me up and he checked it out and said it wasn’t event he right item # so he called over a “manager” and explained to her that i was there not even 20-30 mins ago and bought a pump but it looked used. She went off with my receipt to another register and i assumed that she was checking my history to see if i had bought one before.

She came back and asked if i already had a pump. Without her saying it, I think she was accusing me of switching out the “new” pump i just bought with an old one. we had a few “words” back and forth but eventually she told me to grab another pump.

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Feature requests for Firecontrol:

THC voltage graph - some kind of ability to see the voltages over time as well as smart voltage setting with points that mark THC on and Off. Visible at end of program for review.
THC voltage logging for troubleshooting

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Well, I was getting ready for a nice cut session after spending some time in Sheetcam and Fusion360 last night getting some stuff ready…and my table blew out a tire while I was getting it out to cut!!! My driveway is pretty beat up and not smooth concrete - this was enough to blow out the stock foot insert. I may put a spot of weld on the tube to make sure it stays put, but I may also look into some other inserts at McMaster Carr that I’ve seen on here. I think the casters are fine, but they are really for smooth floors.

Thank goodness the water table wasn’t full. BTW, the table is heavy!

For new readers to the thread: The wheels don’t come with the table. I added them on because I need to wheel my table around because of space constraints. The failure you see here is not due to the table or Langmuir or any quality issue with the table.

Looking sketchy!

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Here is what I did . I think the leg will break off before the castor

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This is what I ended up doing since the stock inserts are waaay too wimpy. I also welded them so they wont accidentally fall out or wobble

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I put a self tapping screw in the leg to hold it.

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It must be my day! One of my goals was to do some 30a tip cuts on 20ga (aka fine cut) to see how that does. I spent the first 10 minutes trying to do a straight cut to clean up my sheets to cut, and it wouldn’t cut for anything! THC on/off, different speeds, etc…tried them all. It would cut a few inches and lose arc. After some head scratching I walk over to the plasma and notice that I forgot to hook up the ground lead. Duh! Ok, I’m learning…cut me some slack…lol

Did get a nice piece, though!

Still some work to go on pierce timing and I’m writing off my first 5 tips and electodes lol! But pretty happy how that came out considering the fineness / closeness of the cuts. It’s for my daughter, I think she’ll like it!

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Very nice, James! And I’m sure that NO ONE else on this forum has EVER forgotten to attach the return Clamp (Don’t call it GROUND, it makes someone very testy…) :wink:

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You are right - it’s the work lead! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::zap::zap::warning:

Well finished up for the day. Lots of fun - did a fair bit of 1/4" plate / 40a. Turned out ok - lots of dross on backside, and it’s not the fall of type - it’s on there good. Will require a fair bit of cleanup.

For the miller 625 users with Machine Torch (not sure if it acts the same with hand torch) - I was needing up to 12-13 seconds of delay before next pierce on 1/4". It seems to depend on how long previous cut was, and is wildly variable. Makes it hard to get g-code that works without lots of trial and error. The torch takes off before firing. If LS support is reading along, the “ARC OK signal” hookup would be nice and then we can forget all about the delay and focus on pierce delay only.

There’s a few other 625 users on here - are y’all seeing the same thing or am I just doing something wrong?

Feature Request for Firecontrol:

Just dropping a few items for thought…

Don’t strip comments out of g-code when loading. It’s quite hard to find the place to restart from if you have to stop restart in middle of code. line numbers don’t match original file.

Scrolling and searching thru g-code window is not easy. I had to use the mouse and the vertical window slider. Could not use up and / page up page down like you’d expect. Know those are bound elsewhere, but when text window has focus, perhaps remap keys for navigation. Or external editor which I think has been requested previously.

The start from here functionality - while it works, reloads the gcode partially, and all my line numbers are off.

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That dern clamp got me once !

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Looks good for just getting started. Once you get that thing dialed in look out.

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Thanks! and also thanks to all the folks on here that have helped me get started and made comments! This forum is a good place to pick up info. LS did well setting this up for customers. My posts hopefully can help some as well…or at least that’s my intent when I’m not goofing off. Off to cook burgers and brats! Cheers!

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And you see we’re looking out for you, right, George? I mean, no one ‘really’ called it a ‘ground’. Not seriously anyway… :grimacing:

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I didn’t say anything—this time. You know it drives me :crazy_face:

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Don’t be silly! You have a very valid perspective!

And those of us who survive, well, we do appreciate it. Um, yeah, you know. Uh… yeah, right.