Interesting concept on leaving the strength of the plasma cutter fixed to one setting always - might eliminate some user error by forgetting to set additional features to material/thickness… What are y’all’s thoughts on running at hyper speed doing it this way? I would think that minimizing the speed of the tool and in turn lowering the settings when applicable could possible yield a more consistent cut but what have you seen? Does it work just as well or is there a setback to doing this?
Thank you for sharing that chart as well. Came across that on another thread and glad to have it here to easily reference.
Truthfully, I have just recently added that micro-pierce clearance. I typically just knock it down to 0.0 and have not noticed any issues. Someone scoffed at my suggestion of removing the pierce clearance when I suggested it to another member to help them get more contours. So, I thought I would try the micro “pierce clearance.” I have not fully fleshed this idea out and I may go back to my 0.0 for pierce clearance.
My whole issue is that I get annoyed when Fusion does not pick up a contour or hole during the CAM operation. I want that feature mapped in the g-code first and foremost. So all-in-all, I think you are reading my intentions pretty good.
And I will say that I did not come up with these ideas on my own. I was watching one of TW’s video. I believe it was on “single line text” and I saw him knock those numbers down to 0.0 and saw how Fusion didn’t even blink. That is when the light went off in my head and I said: So that is how it is done!!!
You sound like you understand the “pierce clearance” very well. When you actually read about it, some say it [pierce clearance] is a throwback from milling machines g-code operations that need time to get the tool up to speed before it touches the material. Obviously, we are not under those same conditions with the plasma stream.
As I have tested just about everything I can before actually firing up the plasma cutter, a few prep questions:
I am awaiting my PlasmaGreen solution and want to get onto some trial runs… Will I be ok just using water for now to get started?
Previous owner mentioned using a rubber funnel looking thing as a cover for the torch. Are others using this and if so, how high above the tip of the nozzle do you run the cover? I don’t want to be flush but seems like you want it somewhat close to serve any purpose…
I have this setup in a shop with a door at the back and a garage door at the front. I have also put up three 20" fans - one at the rear of the garage, one at the center (above the side of the plasma cutter and off the table about 3 foot, and lastly, just before the garage door opener. Pushing all air from back to front (out the garage door). Is this enough ventilation? Do I need to have the garage door wide open or can I just crack it on bad weather days?
Have you considered setting your interior lead ins to the radius of the holes to be cut to maximize cleanliness? I’m wondering if setting it like this and then cutting straight at the hole to be made will work out best for me. A million ways to do it I’m sure
Pierce clearance is not necessary at all. This setting doesn’t even exist in Sheetcam. Anyone that scoffs at setting it to zero doesn’t know what they are talking about.
Plain water. Did it a few times. It protects the pan but every slat rusts. Mine are still rusted but work fine. I use Borax. Used to use Sterling Cool. PlasmaGreen sounds to be good. But yes, you could do the borax if you don’t want all your slats rusted right away.
Funnel. I don’t have one. One more thing to catch on tip ups and mess up your cut.
Fan. You will need air circulation. I happen to have a smoke detector in my garage. It gets set off all the time. Now I roll the table outside.
Water should be ok for a short period but you will get some flash rusting.
I dont use on but i thought I saw someone had theirs catch fire, tip up might be another problem it it catches one.
If you just have a fan blowing in a open room its not going to do anything but move air around. you need to mount a fan in the wall or window, then open something on the other side to let air in. This will work best. Or just open your garage door. Cracking your garage door would work with a fan in the window, if there far enough apart.
I saw you in the wings and I thought I’d better finish this quickly so I can see what Knick has to say. Then I thought you left. Glad you stuck with it. I like your input.
next time let me know were racing. I wont proof read till after I post it! lol
I derailed another thread. We need a way to mark a post somehow, so that after the post is marked solved someone like @TomWS with power could zap all the non relevant post.
If that happens I might only have 4-5 posts that would not get deleted
@ChelanJim@Knick noted on first two questions. On the air circulation, basically having the door open at the back and then putting a fan that blows out the garage door at the front would do a good enough job getting the air to flow? Would this workout you think? assume door (left) and garage (right) are open
Another question: I remember the previous owner mentioning something about certain wires couldn’t touch or be close together. Are there certain wires/cables that should absolutely be isolated? I think he had said something about possibly the usb cable interfering with something at one point? It seemed like it was an electric frequency crazy interference not simply the problem of your x or y axis cables getting hung up. Something not as visually obvious??
It looks like you have good cross ventilation. Might work just fine. If you have a smoke detector, it will definitely trigger, however. When it happens, I just spray smoke detector with the air nozzle.
As for the wires, I have not had any trouble so I can’t really say for sure about your situation. But, yes: the cable from the computer to the enclosure should not come near the torch cable. The torch cable should be isolated (as best you can) from the other cables. Again, I have not had any issues even when they are touching but, I still try to keep them apart.
I don’t have any windows, only a man door and overhead garage door…
I went ahead and got an additional fan today for better ventilation - one that will pull more air in and get a little rotation going. I also moved the last fan off the wall and instead put it right at the foot of the garage to force the air flowing from the (image top) side out and the new air from the bottom right fan could mix in.
This made a big difference. Where as with the first arrangement of fans, I was wondering if it would be enough, I can physically feel the air moving around with just the garage door opened up 1-2 feet and when I open the rear man door along with the garage door all the way, it is like a jet stream in there now! ha
The obvious answer seems to be leave the door and garage door open during use but in situations where it is raining or other bad weather, I want to be prepared to have circulation/ventilation without having them wide open. Of course, the garage will always need to be at least partially open or I’m only circulating smoky air but in theory, I am happy with this setup.
All in, I have about $100-$120 in fans now and with all the other purchases above, if this works, it will be money well spent.
I also grabbed two milk crates to set the plasma cutter up on. Lined all of my wires up so there is no coiling and the plasma torch line is untouched from the front of the cutter to the top of the table minus one intersection where the langmuir box has to go by to connect to the wall outlet. Having it all set up is very exciting. Looks pretty heavy duty but alas, my 220V wall outlet does not match the prongs of the plasma cutter so I have to swap out the wall outlet, confirm wire gauge, and potentially swap breakers.
Currently, the outlet is set up with 8GA wire and a 40A breaker but I may go to 4GA wire and a 60A breaker… Is this overkill? It seems like this is technically correct if I am going to use the full 60A on the cutter but I have also been told that maybe I can get by with what I have? I am not an electrician so I am not too sure on this part… The two options in my opinion are:
Keep the 40A breaker/8GA wiring to outlet
Upgrade to 60A breaker/4GA wiring to outlet
Changing just the wire would still cause the breaker to trip if I pull too much amperage
Changing just the breaker could melt the wiring if I pull too much amperage
I have also read that 8GA wiring with the 60A breaker could technically get by in most cases but not sure if I want to risk that… Better safe than sorry. Thoughts?
Let’s talk electricity first. You never want to put a breaker that is sized more than the wire could handle. Here is a chart to use: (and notice this is for copper wire, aluminum carries less)
Air flow: If you create an airflow in one direction going out, the incoming air will find its way. You won’t need a fan pushing in. I would have three fans lined up with the plasma table all pushing out. You may need to make ventilation through the wall if that doesn’t create the right affect.
