I started a cut last night after running through my mental checklist. The torch arced briefly and then extinguished after cutting about 4 inches. I realized that I didn’t put the ground clamp on as it was a new piece of material. After resetting the program and attaching the ground clamp the part cut just fine. My question is, does that cause any damage to the consumables or any other part of the plasma cutter when that happens? I haven’t pulled the consumables yet to take a look as it was getting late last night (probably why I forgot the clamp in the first place). Just curious. Thanks.
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@mechanic416 has seen it all and is probably the best one to answer this question.
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In most cases it will not harm the plasma cutter. Pilot arc will last for about 3 to 4 seconds on most plasma cutters. Now depending on the plasma cutter and the metal being cut, pilot are will be between 15 and 25 amps and some times cut thin metal before shutting off.
As far as consumables in most cases it does not harm them. But can cause a misfire sometimes later as it was arcing between the electrode and cutting tip for a short time and could cause a burn mark on the cutting tip.
In pilot arc the electrode is negative and the cutting tip is positive. As the electrode pulls back from the cutting tip it creates a spark giving you pilot arc. When the torch/cutting tip gets close to the metal that the work clamp that is positive is clamped to the arc transfers to the work piece as a cutting arc and the cutting tip then becomes neutral. If the cutting tip touches the metal that the work clamp (positive) is on then the cutting tip becomes positive again and causes what they call double arcing as it is pilot arcing at the same time its cutting. This is why you should never touch or drag the cutting tip on the metal being cut. At high amps touching the cutting tip to the metal can melt the cutting tip to the metal.
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@mechanic416 Thanks for the very thorough explanation. The pilot arc acted just as you described and fizzled out after just a few seconds. Good to know that the cutter is most likely ok. Like I said in the original post, it acted fine afterwards but I wanted to check since I’m very new to all of this. I’m going to post a checklist by the laptop so that I don’t have to try and remember every single step until I get more experience. Thanks again.
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