Hi I’m cutting 16g steel with my Everlast 62i with a ptm60 machine torch using .8mm tips
Cut height .063 in
Pierce height .15 in
Pierce delay .5s
110 ipm @ 30 amps
I had some beautiful cuts before this I’m not sure what is happening
What do your consumables look like? Do you notice a green hue to the plasma arc?
Is your work clamp attached directly to the material?
Ground is directly on the material, the consumable are barely used I didn’t notice a green hue to the arc, but what would that be sign of?
Suppose the work clamp is on the metal. Then, pull the consumables out and look to replace the electrode and tip. Make sure you don’t have Chinese Amazon crap that you are installing. Give that a try.
Just one or two no pierces will destroy a tip in seconds. This is assuming that your cut height is correct @ .060.
The green color is the copper in the electrode burning, because the hafnium core is gone. Copper doesn’t make a very effective cutting plasma stream. What you get is what you see in your picture, with the top surface gouged and not cut through.
Wade, we are waiting for some good photos showing the inside and outside of your consumables. Then we can go further.
As mentioned by others I would start by checking the consumables. Remove your consumables and take some close up in focus pics of your nozzle and electrode tips facing upward.
Your consumables may be new but there are a few things that can significantly reduce consumable life.
Air quality: you need an ample supply of clean dry air. If you are still running with only the coalescing filter you will likely burn through consumables pretty fast. At minimum, depending on your climate add a quart sized desiccant filter and a motorguard filter.
Consumable quality: the cheap ones won’t last long and won’t cut as well.
Cut height: if you haven’t already you need to verify your actual cut height matches your programmed cut height. You can program a straight cut and pause it after the IHS cycle… or there are a couple of programs available on the forum that do it without firing the torch.
Post flow: the time the air blows after the cut is done. This should be 30 seconds min. It is a setting on the plasma cutter itself. If the hafnium isn’t cooled between cuts it will blow out and you will be left with only copper as David said.
just realized I didn’t get a good pic of the swirl ring, does that matter? sorry been busy with work and baby.
my cut height is set to .063, that’s what ive always cut at, and I still have to check it with a feeler gage. I was watching it cut yesterday and it seemed like the torch was moving up while cutting, could it be a fault with my torch height control?
ok…it is a good idea to clean up your clamp a bit…cleanliness is next to Godliness…and that is by far not Godly…
so what I see here is a worn out tip…the hole does not look smooth and even…it looks pitted…which makes the arc messy.
the electrode does not look to bad…how many pierces and time do you have on the electrode and tip?
my post flow is 35 seconds
pierces has to be less than 50 for sure on the electrode, as for the tip, I swapped that on after it didn’t cut on the first one, the issue persisted after I put it on. that tip has got about 10-15 pierces.
could my parameters be an issue as in feed rate too slow so the metal shoots up like spatter and sticks to the tip?
Off the subject. You better get some water in that tray before you need to start a new thread.
.063 is ok.
The swirl marks around the electrode are signs of extremely high dew point. Water in your air. That is a major reason for the nozzles failing so quickly.
We see these threads pop up each summer.
Anyone who starts in the winter without an air drying and cooling system doesn’t notice problems until ambient temps rise.
Damn that makes a lot of sense, I started last fall. got any recommendations for some affordable drying/cooling systems?
here is my system…it has some basic ideas you can use…
as for the extra tanks and refrigerated dryer…those are extras that go above and beyond but help provide dry air…
I use an Everlast 62i and can get well over 1200 pierces on a set of consumables with this drying system
