The Plasmadyn machine torch consumables are completely different than what the titanium hand torch consumables are.
More pics of tabs and brackets I cut out of 1/4’ steel at 40 imp. 45 amps .9 second delay. no clean up little to no dross.
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Nice cuts. I hope my table performs as well!
Dry clean air and good air volume is key, good quality consumables. Do lots of test cuts trying different cut speeds to dial in on what you will be cutting.
I have had zero issues with my crossfire pro table it is a great table, the titanium 45 cutter has been trouble free as well.
I did put deposit on the new XR table Sunday, I want a bigger cutting envelope.
It’s a 3/8" hose, and the hoses inside the cutter itself are 1/4", so I’m guessing that wherever the flow restriction lies it’s somewhere in there.
Right, I was asking what consumables you use with the Plasmadyn machine torch, and I’m thinking I could order one myself as a “cheap” (much less expensive than a whole new machine) experiment. I see that it’s compatible with Hypertherm consumables, and was wondering what in particular you use. Your cuts in 1/4" steel plate look great!
I use the Hypertherm consumables.
You have a moisture problem. I don’t know if that’s the only problem, but anytime you are going through consumables that fast, it’s moisture in your air. The increase in moisture lowers electric resistant and increases heat transfer so it can give electric problems and destroy torch consumables.
I’ve been trying to chase it down, and haven’t been able to identify any obvious moisture problem in my compressed air setup. I just grabbed a picture of it:
- disconnect from compressed air supply
- air cleaner
- desiccant air dryer
- motor guard air filter (sub-micron)
- pressure regulator
- plasma cutter (Harbor Freight Titanium 45)
I’ve recharged the desiccant and while it does change color slowly as I send air through it (over the course of a day of experimenting) it doesn’t seem like it’s getting used up too quickly – the desiccant at the top of the bowl remains bright blue. I’ve checked the filter in the motor guard as well, and it looks clean and is dry to the touch.
I haven’t been able to find a way to measure the dryness of my compressed air. It seems there are test instruments for doing it, but they’re pretty pricey. The only other thing I can think of trying is getting a cylinder of dry compressed air or nitrogen and hooking that up to the plasma cutter and seeing if that fixes the problem. I’ve seen that people are generally happy with the HF refrigeration air dryer, but that’s a pretty expensive piece of kit – unless I’m sure it would in fact solve the problem.
Can’t go wrong with the refrigerated air dryer. But also put a cooler between pump and tank. I have radiator between pump and tank with a water trap, a radiator after tank, refrigerated air dryer. I have a 30 gal dry air tank down steam that I have never gotten water from bottom of the tank.
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I had to jump in on this one… 
rat196426 is spot on. I literally just did this upgrade this past weekend. I got tired of killing the HF consumables. Theres a huge difference in cut quality and consumable life. Don’t forget to order the machine torch bracket from LS as well. I was having a similar issue to yours and found my backlash setting of .02 was too high. I found .01 is dead on .06 desired cut height. To confirm this I set the table for a 4" line cut in fusion to use THC control and 3" into the cut hit stop (arc stable @120v) then moved the x axis 1/4" checked the z height with feeler gauges.
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Doh! Never occurred to me there was a special bracket for machine torches. I found out when I got the torch that it doesn’t even fit in the handheld torch bracket, so I made a couple of temporary plywood clamps to fake a machine torch holder.
I think my consumable problems are finally licked! The new machine torch from plasmadyn is working very nicely, coupled with the consumables from plasmadyn.
I hadn’t looked at cut height at all, so I experimented this weekend. I found that by default that Langmuir’s postprocessor for Fusion 360 specifies a backlash of .020" and if you inspect the generated G code you’ll see that it adds another .020" on top of that, so the net effect is that whatever your specified cut height is (e.g. .063") it ends up .040" higher than that by default if you have zero backlash in your setup. I measured mine and found that I only had .009" of backlash, so I had to tell the postprocessor I had a backlash of -.011" to get to the desired cut height of .063". I’ll post separately with more details on that.
Regarding my final setup, I ordered from plasmadyn.com:
- X45Torch: X45 CNC Torch - Titanium
- 52574 Electrode - 5pc
- 51206 35A Nozzle - 5pc note, I’m pretty sure these are the right nozzles to use, the notes on the website are contradictory
The torch came with no documentation, as far as I can tell the included consumables are:
- 52574 Electrode (1 pc)
- 60041 Swirl Ring (1 pc)
- 51206.05 Unshielded tip 50A (1 pc) note, this isn’t compatible with the provided shield
- 60305 Retaining cup (1 pc)
- 51924 Shield - Machine (1 pc)
I didn’t do any cutting with the 51206.5 unshielded nozzle that came with the torch, I immediately switched it to the 51206 shielded nozzle.
If you’re looking for the equivalent Hypertherm machine torch (T45m) consumables that are compatible with this torch, they appear to be:
- Shield: Hypertherm 220673, Plasmadyn 51924
- Retaining cap: Hypertherm 220713, Plasmadyn 60305
- Nozzle: Hypertherm 220671, Plasmadyn 51206
- Swirl ring: Hypertherm 220670, Plasmadyn 60041
- Electrode: Hypertherm 220669, Plasmadyn 52574
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Clever setup with the plywood clamps. You will have a lot better cut quality with the machine torch, dial it in on scrap steel and aluminum to get your best cut on materials. Make sure you have good air supply to machine, and it is filtered and dry. The Hypertherm consumables will give you best cuts and life over others…
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I got pretty good results, and ran a bunch of tests, so I’m at least convinced (mostly) that this has finally fixed my consumables problem, which was driving me nuts. My cuts don’t look as good as what you’ve shown for 1/4" plate (I happen to be working with 1/4" plate as well) but the dross is minimal by the standards I’ve grown used to, and cleans up very easily. More importantly (to me at least) I’m getting really nice square edges, previously I had a lot of issues with positive and negative bevel going on as well.
I ordered a set of the Hypertherm consumables with the assumption that they’d be the Cadillac option, but I haven’t received them yet. The stuff I ordered from Plasmadyn shipped very quickly, which was great.
I really wanted to be sure that my air is clean and dry, but I couldn’t find a way to measure it that wasn’t hundreds of dollars. My filter setup is staying clean, and the desiccant takes a couple days before I start to see a color change, so I assume I’m doing pretty well. It might be fun to add an aftercooler between the compressor and the tank, but that’s a project for another day.
Thanks everybody for all your advice, it’s great to get pointed in the right direction by somebody who has been there before you.
Nice temporary clamps I’m happy to hear you’re getting things sorted. Once again the clean dry air is key. I’d like to also remind that air pressure increase is key with the machine torch. I found 75 psi to be a good pressure. I had to remove the regulator from its mounting location and disconnect the outbound line leaving it connected to the regulator side. I pressed a plastic car tire valve cap extension over the line and used a digital tire pressure gauge to set it.
very nice work