So, i am new with my plasma and I literally just started using my cnc for real this week and since I am a noob I was wondering about the nozzles.
Thus, if I had to tell you that I was cutting 8mm thk mild steel at 48 amps, piercing at 3.5mm and cutting at 2mm with a THC… using 65Amp nozzles and cutting speed of 750mm/min(which was the best speed yielding zero dross what so ever)… is it OK if after approx 35 m of cutting and around 40 pierces later the nozzles started to get bad?
What is your intake on this? I really what to hear from someone who has done hours of cutting to guide me…
Depends greatly on your cutter and how clean your air is. Tell us what cutter you’re using and what your entire air run from compressor to plasma is. The times mentioned here sound really short.
On my powermax 45xp I get hours of cut time and hundreds of pierces before I need to change consumables. I also have an aftercooler on my compressor, a refrigerated air dryer, filter and desiccant, and Motorguard m26 to the cutter.
I have one water separated that is with the plasma unit, than I have an AT1000 filter ( like a roll of toilet paper), than there are two filters (0.01 and 0.1 micron particulate filter ) then 10 meters away there is the compressor.
The roll of toilet paper filters and cheap water separators won’t remove enough moisture and your nozzles will deform quickly. You should get at least 10 times that amount use out of a nozzle before it starts to wear. You need a large desiccant dryer, a refrigerated dryer, or an after cooler and DIY copper pipe water cooler/seperator set up. There are lots of posts on all 3 of these, just search for them.
I think next I ll try adding a large large desiccant canister and see from there!
However I must say that I got obsessed with the mirror test under the torch, but never managed to get any visible moisture on the glass… NEVERTHELESSS (and please bare with me now), today I was checking the nozzle very frequently and whilst removing the the nozzle, I noticed some moisture from the holes of the plasma torch!!! Now the funny thing is that my 4 filters that I have a literally bone dry.
I know I am saying alot of contradictions here, hence why I am going to the next step and placing a desiccant filter.
I am starting to believe that the issue is in the 6 m long torch cable… maybe I am getting moisture along the way after long cuts of 4 to 6 minutes…!?
P.S - I normally cut 6,8 and 10mm thick mild steel…
Put the desiccant in first, even a small one and see how fast it gets consumed. I was surprised to find even with my setup I’m changing desiccant daily. But it’s a very small holder. If I forget to turn on the dryer, it’s gone in a few compressor cycles.
Wouldn’t it be better if you put the desiccant filter after the water separators? My belief is that if the water separators manage to catch water before hand, the desiccant would last longer…right? Or?..
Thinking about this lately, I think your problem may be that the water vapor is not condensing so the filters can’t pull the water out. This happens when the air is still too warm as it passes through the filters.
You can test this out by taking a coil of airline and drop it in a cooler with ice water then see if your filters are now collecting water, you mentioned that your filters are dry, that should change if you can get the temp of the air down before it enters the filters.
Possable solution:
Yes, I meant try the desiccant first. Definitely not first in the order of airline.
Does air temperature matter with desiccant? I never really thought about the fact that if the air isn’t cooling the filters aren’t stopping anything, but it makes sense. Just weird that it still affects the torch.
Yeah, air temp will absolutely matter with coalescing and refrigerated dryers. Not so much with desiccant. Your dryers are probably bone dry because they’re ineffective.
If you’re seeing moisture in the holes on the shield from water splashing back onto the torch, that won’t effect the nozzle life. Pre flow should blow any splashed water out of the shield a fraction of a second before the torch fires. Or are you seeing moisture inside the nozzle or on the electrode? Are you using a Hypertherm?
I have an S65P (trafimet brand) torch and the holes i were referring to are inside, behind the shield cap.
I have build a down draft table, so I dont have water in my cnc table.
As plasma I have an oxford550.
Today I have decided to get an air dryer. As after all the research and comments that I ve read, I think an air dryer is the thing to do. So locally a found a Parker air dryer model SPE 007… air dryers are not that common here.
We ll see how iy goes…I hope it solve my water issue!
Okay, so everyone seems to be saying short nozzle life is due to moisture in the air…???
So, if i started with brand new consumables today, and only managed to run the table for about an hour, which 15~30min of actual “torch on” time and maybe 200~400 pierces (i forgot to reset the counter/timer)…
you guys are saying that it is not normal for my nozzle to blow out and need to be replaced???
Razorweld 45 w/ X45 Machine Torch and
using Langmuire consumables it came with
i have a 60gal compressor, then 20ft of copper pipe setup as a condenser, then a 3-stage filter/dryer, then 60’ of PEX then another 3-stage filter/dryer. the air coming out of the torch is dry as far as i can tell.
right now, with the nozzle blowing out so frequently, its going to prevent me from being cost competitive.
