Okay, so I finally had time to install the new shielded tips from @mechanic416 and just ran a test cut on 1/4" steel. Unfortunately, the taper is as bad as ever. The cut quality looks good, and it seems to cut easily - clean edges and very little slag on top or bottom. I’m using a brand new shielded 40A tip, new electrode, and new swirl ring with the cutter set to 40A, 38IPM, and 65PSI.
Here’s the new consumables from George that I used for the test.
I verified once again that everything on the table was square…
I cut out an octagon so that I could see if any particular direction was worse than others.
Here are the consumables after 3 pierces, and 32 seconds of cutting time (my first attempt I had the amperage set too low, then the lack of a lead-in made the part shift on the second try).
Here’s the top and the bottom of the cutout octagon.
Here’s the lead-in point, and the first edge looks good and square.
The actual cut looks clean too.
Unfortunately, this is what more than one of the other edges looks like…
The kerf also looks a little wide to me, but I could live with that if the sides weren’t so tapered.
Finally, here’s a video showing each of the sides for comparison.
I was really, really hoping that the new consumables and re-squared table would solve the problem, but I’m stumped. I certainly appreciate any light that you smart people can shed on this issue!