saw a comment on another forum that our machines dont like the smart voltage on the THC. anyone else had this issue? i haven’t cut a lot since i got my 45XP with machine torch setup. but it seems ive made better cuts with the THC off.
also who’s using corner / circle rules? what are your speeds / circle sizes ? i’ve seen everything from 60-70% reductions in the corners and small circles, but how soon do you want to make the transition before a corner? is it thickness dependant?
I don’t have a lot of experience, here is my research. I’ve attached a document from Hypertherm on hole cutting. You can also find posts by Jim Colt (Hypertherm Employee )on plasmaspider.com, here are a few:
newbie questions Hypertherm 65 - PlasmaSpider.com
Corner slowdown rules...do you use them for art, or just dimensional stuff? - PlasmaSpider.com
Generally he recommends holes 1-1/4" and smaller be cut at 60% book cutting speeds for best results.
Here’s my results cutting 1/4" plate hole test with the Pro and a Hypertherm 600 with the Duramax torch (same consumables as yours, but 40 amp machine) using Jim’s recommendations. I measured taper to be 2.5 degrees or under, which is in line with what I’ve seen Jim post.
hyperthermholes.zip (672.9 KB)
I also have a 45xp and have recently got some seat time with the pro. I have cut 14ga and 3/16" so far using book settings and the corner / circle rules that Jim Colt recommends.
I did add .2 seconds to all of my pierce delays and I’m running a .5 second pause after the cut with all my tools. 60% on circles smaller than 1 1/4" and I believe .1" before / after a corner.
I do not have any rules for THC in Sheetcam, I let firecontrol handle that as it looks at cut speed to determine when to shut off the THC.
I’ve cut 14ga using smart voltage and have manually set it based on hypertherm book settings just to see if there was any difference in edge quality. Didn’t notice much difference so I assume that smart voltage was working as it should.
I believe that Langmuir doesn’t recommend using smart voltage for anything thinner than 14ga, and I’m assuming that’s because of how much the sheets can deflect. When I saw how much the sheet deflected with the initial height sense, I opted to use book settings for voltage.
I did a bunch of tests on 14 gauge as well. With and without THC, smart voltage, and like @TrademarkMetalworx didn’t find much difference. I did the same as him though and use the suggested settings from Jim (60% feeds for small circles).
This is 3/8 HR flat bar, i cant complain. Wish i was paying attention when i cut the rest of the pieces out to see what the voltage was.
Just curious what you mean by this… What does the .5 sec pause do? I too am using a 45xp…
Thanks.
There is a setting in sheetcam (maybe fusion also) that allows you to add a pause after the torch is done cutting. With it set at .5 seconds, when the cut is finished it waits the specified amount of time before going to the next pierce location.
I originally started using the pause with the original crossfire to give me some extra time to clear a tip up. I’ve continued to use it with the pro because there have been issues reported with the torch not firing at the next pierce.
Been cutting anything from 22 gauge to 14. I don’t turn on/off the THC and have beautiful, minimal dross cuts. I do have SheetCam rules for most any inside cuts (50% speed), which is supposed to alert the THC to turn off automatically. I also have reduced the book speed settings as they seem way too fast. The table just isn’t rigid enough in my opinion to handle it and the torch is probably shaking a bit. For example, book is 325 for 22 gauge. I run it around 200 and turn the amps to 40.
