I watch my live voltage, have recorded some of it. Its around 125 or 126 usually at 63 amps cutting. Hyp book states at 65 amps Id be 126 volts. So to me it seems steady.
What kind of interference are you noticing? Like a large voltage spike or bad cuts?
I was seeing live voltage around 32 while cutting 3/8 and 1/4. Torch was cutting very high off the workpiece. Like 1/2 inch. It cut fine at first, then wouldn’t go through until I dropped the speed a lot.
As long as you aren’t using a grounded plug you’re probably fine.
Had another good day cutting. Z axis got hung up again, blew it out with air. What I now do is click on the line of code I’m on, stop program. Then jog Z axis up and down and blow it out with air. Restart using the run from here options, and now loop or line is optional. I haven’t tried the run from line thing yet.
Ran some 1/4 inch with used consumables. Kept my ones that had 860 pierces on them for 1/8 and 3/16. Im up to about 1400 plus pierces. I did have one misfire with them today and some back on 500 pierces. I can live with that, esp when FC detects the misfire. Im really hoping to atleast get to 2000 pierces without a bunch of misfires. If I can get up to 2500 pierces than things will be really good. I just ordered more copper plus electrodes and some regular electrodes along with nozzles. Im paying real close attention to how often I purchase over the months. I’ll continue to cycle in consumables that became problematic. I think stopping, taking everything apart and putting back together helps. I usually take the electrode and twist it into the nozzle to create a smooth pattern in there. I also blow out the small holes in the retaining cap.
So no machine issues to really note, except Z hangup not touching sheet on IHS. Also today I noticed that huge warning box that pops up on a misfire, when I’d pause the program. Now this box doesn’t come up all the time. I’v noticed it come up when program is pause for a while and also after you get one misfire. I can live with it bc what I do now is shut FC down and restart and then when I pause the run, I get no boxes popping up that I have to close.
Im up to 2200 pierces on this set of consumables. Im purposely not using them on anything thicker than 3/16. Im noticing the hafinum material inside the electrode isn’t trying to push out, its starting to wear a very tiny indent it as it should. So I’ll keep you all posted on that.
I had 2 Z axis issues again while cutting. Basically its like something binds up, probably debris and then it zeros out above the sheet. Its becoming a daily issue. Im so pressed for time as usual, esp since winter is coming. But, I plan to make taller stansion plates and Im going to build a deeper water table. The rails and Z axis are just too close to the water table IMO. Im constantly cleaning them off. On the CF I’v had more than enough debris get on there and disrupt the bearings thus the program coordinates. On the PRO it seemed to have happened once.
over 3000 pierces and cutting good still. Had one misfire today on them. So far, misfire at 500, 1200ish and 2600. I can live with that. Today FC didn’t detect the misfire. I still don’t know why that is.
Good to hear.
What has changed? Did you find a cause oval, the problems?
I’ve been watching Gary for years.
I don’t have an exact answer bc the set bf this one I only got about 1k pierces or so and started getting too many misfires. The shop is around 50 degrees and no humidity since its winter here. Other than that, I clean the setup alot more, I take the electrode and grind it into the nozzle to clean it up and create a smooth clean pattern. I also haven’t cut any 1/4" with these consumables. So Im experimenting with that. Again one thing I’v noticed a while back was the hafinum inside the electrode. If it spurts out and creates a lip on the electrode I think that causes problems. On these ones, you can see a tiny indent starting. I have tons of old electrodes that have deep pits in them. So that was a red flag to me hence why I thought sometimes I had defective electrodes. So right now, no exact answer unfortunately. It sucks that its just such a sporadic problem. I’v been putting in old electrodes to cut certain material that has less pierces and longer cuts. For every 800 pierces I have prolly 4500 inches of cut.
Well this set of consumables is nearing its end. I had about 3500 pierces and I’d guess around 15000 inches of cut. They still cut good but I’m finally seeing a divot in the electrode. I had over 4 misfires today in about a 2hr period. FC detected one of them and that is it. So that type of stuff just hinders production. So I’ll move these onto seconds and see if I can cut some 1/4 with them or use them sparingly. From putting in old consumables Im starting to document some extra pierces from them, example I counted about 300 pierces today from them. The 3500 pierces I got was only on 1/8 and 3/16. I’d imagine I could get much more life out of them on 1/8 and thinner. But any thinner and I’d drop down to the fine tips. The table was fine today, no issues. FC still that glitch of having a pop up warning window after you pause. It only does that if it detects a misfire, then after that every time you pause the file, it pops up that same window. Or if you let FC set too long on paused it will do that also. At any rate, the cut quality and consumable life is what Iv gotten in the past, perhaps a little better now. The machine is cutting and acting good. I wish it was like this in the beginning bc the first 5 weeks just seemed like a nightmare. I’v been thinking of possibly selling one of my CF tables and getting another pro. Was also really looking into a JD sq table which is over 4x’s the cost of the PRO. So next year I’ll cross that bridge. Maybe langmuir will offer another platform.
Got some material to build a deeper water table, also going to raise up the rails. I think this will help in alot of ways. For my 65 amp, this water table is too shallow. also if I don’t grab a part for a while and it sets under there I get slag moltened to it and really messes up the parts. So I’ll be posting on that soon, just super busy with orders. Winter is coming too, so most of ya know how that goes! We had 6" the other day.
Glad to hear you’re having a little more success with your misfires but strange there doesn’t really seem to any for sure reason why it was happening though.
I noticed you upped you torch pressure up 1 psi I wonder if that is something that helped you?
I had to change my consumables today and these are after six or seven 5’x10’ sheets cut I cant quite remember and mostly all 3/16" with one or two sheets being 1/8".
I don’t know the exact numbers for pierces or inches but they’ll be around 6000 pierces and 30000-40000 inches of cutting I’m not 100% on that as you can tell with the huge gap in numbers. I had zero misfires up to the one that I stopped the program and pulled out the consumables and changed them and continued on.
Dang 6000 pierces is great. I used to be able to wear deep holes in my consumables but not so much now. I can’t honestly recall if its cause Im on the 65amp unit or not. Today I put new ones in and withing a few hundred pierces I had two misfires. I put about 900 pierces on them today. I think alot of my issues is holes. I cut tons of them.
Also today I had for the first time FC completely froze during a cut. I had to shut the plasma off. FC was dead but everything was lit up. So I had to force shut it down. Restart and it didn’t save my zero location. So all that ate up 10 min.
Here is a pic of my consumables at about 3500 pierces. I can def use these on other stuff but I’ll take them outta normal production.
Been so busy its hard for me to get anytime to do anything outside of running my business and family. I tested a moch up plate to raise the rails up. I did a 1, 2 and 3 inch increment. I think I’ll go straight up to the 3 and see how it goes. This will allow full size sheet of material to stick outside of the table while cutting, which is a big deal IMO. Hoping it will keep the rails a bit cleaner. Also I can now lower my machine torch so it will proportionately balance better. I’ll also be able to clear more parts that are cutting on the outter edge of the X axis. The way LM designed the support angle gets real close to tipped parts. Lastly this will allow me to make a deeper water table.
I really am hoping LM gets FC working flawlessly, which for most part has been good. I think they should offer an industrial table. Slightly bigger, taller stansion plates, maybe get rid of lead screws and beef up the bearings on the X axis. deeper water table. Im sure they could be under 5k no problem. Its a great price point. Faster rapids would be nice too. when you have a bigger table and are zooimng at 300ipm it takes a while. When you see other machines zip around at 600+ it makes a big difference in a production setting. Overall for this price, can’t complain. I think my adjustments should help.
I didn’t read this entire massive thread but by way of a basic question, do you attach your work clamp directly to the material stock? Early on I had issues of misfires and blew through nozzles like crazy and found the problem was related to conductivity to the work clamp. The slats started forming dross on them that was preventing continuity. Clamping to stock helped significantly.
I was told as long as Im getting good cuts and consistent fires the ground is good (from hypertherm). I also watch my live voltage and it seems good. So I don’t think its a ground issue. Im doing almost 15,000 inches of cut a week. I clean my cable everyday and make sure the slat is clean, I also lay the clamp down onto the water table. I have tried clamping under the table bf as well. I thought about adding an extra clamp to the material that comes back to the clamp. My clamp is huge so its not always easy to get it directly onto the material. On my other setup, I use to clamp it to the slat and also have the material touching the clamp. But yes good grounds are key, can never have enough good grounds!
Not intending to be a smartass but it’s important not to confuse the “work clamp” with “grounding”. The work clamp is DC+ and any “grounding” is associated with the input electrical associated with the controller or plasma cutter AC power. Again, not going full on know it all here but for anyone starting out it is imperative to get this straight. It is possible to be running a cut on the table and have a concurrent ground fault condition grounding through the table as well. Aside from this it sounds like you are making the right moves for good conductivity. Good luck.
I just got a quote from ArcLight dynamics for their 4x8 and 5x10. 17532 for the 4x8 and 19532 for the 5x10. and that price is with shipping. The JD Squared models are about the same from what i can tell. I have also been looking at Avid CNC (CNC router parts).
From the looks of it, you do a ton of cutting…ever change the filter in the plasma cutter?
Filter on plasma looks clean. I’v never had moisture built up in there. Wouldn’t hurt I guess. I just don’t get the inconsistency. Consumables I just retired had 3500 pierces and tons of inches of cut. I had 3 misfires through the course of the week using them. One a day or so I can deal with. ON my new batch which are outta the same package, I have about 1200 pierces on and I had like 3 misfires just today. So I don’t know if my set up gets loose or too tight or what. So many variables. I usually just take it all apart clean it put it back on after I get a couple misfires. After one random misfire it restarts and is fine for a while. But days like today just sucked. I also had the X axis screw me over again today. Every once in while on the far bottom corner of cutting it gets hemmed up. I sometimes notice a huge amount of whip in the lead screw. So bunch of wasted time today cutting. Yesterday I had FC freeze so its dang near everyday I have an issue. Sometimes I can go a couple days and it seems ok.
I’m very hesitant to drop 15k on a table and not ever have ran it personally. I can watch videos all day long but its risky. I think LM would be the company to make that ideal table Im looking for. But just like the surprise of the PRO coming out and took me off guard right after I bought a second CF, who knows what plans they have for an upgrade. The lead screws are annoying and the rail system after a short while develops a groove in it from the bearings. I don’t know what other issues I’d run into with other tables. Plasma cutting might just be that industry to stay out of for a living!!! Though I don’t cut for people, that would drive me nuts. I do all proprietary stuff. Most days I pretty much dread cutting, unless Im making something new.
yeah if they were to go to a bigger table, definitely would have to go with linear rails.
