Hi! I’m very new to plasma cutting and last night, I made my first cut. My first cut didn’t come out well, and is awfully distorted. I ran the cut at 15A at 50PSI with 40ipm feed rate (Fusion 360 default) I believe that the problem could be a cut height error, as I’m clueless on picking the offset. I don’t have THC or IHS
What plasma machine do you have,how thick is material are you cutting? Turn amps up to 45 and air pressure to 70-75 psi at torch.
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I’m surprised it cut through anything.
You can ignore any default speeds in Fusion - each plasma cutter has its own cut speed which is determined by the consumable type used, as well as the thickness of the material cut.
Like stated, you should provide exactly what you’re running but I suspect both too low of an amp setting paired with too slow of a speed.
The steel posted looks like either 16 gauge up to 11 gauge - I cut 11 gauge at 90ipm and 16 gauge at 150ipm. Not something you should follow right away but you can see how far off we are compared to one another.
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It looks like you have a gouging tip on that torch.
It is hard to tell in the blurry picture. If it is, you will need the correct consumables.
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@Plasma4 welcome to the Forum.
Also your couplers are slipping. That’s why the outer end cut is not lining up and some of the letters are displaced.
Is that a drag shield on the tip of the torch?
That sheet metal piece that comes with most plans cutters is a standoff for hand cutting and is never used for CNC cutting.
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It’s said in the title. 22GA bestarc BTC500XP
Yes, it is. Should I remove it?
Yes. It will hold the torch too high above the metal. You want to put your .060"(1/16") spacer between the metal that you are cutting and the actual cutting tip of the torch to set the torch height.
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Can not use drag shield on a plasma table. You need the correct shield.
Contact this guy. His name is George. He owns a plasma cutter shop. He can identify the torch and get you what you need. @mechanic416 on this forum, pm him.
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Alright, I removed the drag shield and cuts are looking a lot better. Now I need a new compressor and for some reason when I cut letters they skip over sometimes. Does this have to do with my pilot arc timing and pierce delay? What compressor should
I use?
Skip over meaning doesn’t cut or the location moves over?
One of the earlier comments pointed out that it looks like you have couplers slipping. If the coupler between the motor and the lead screw slips, your cuts will end up in the wrong place.
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It traces over the cut, the torch just doesn’t fire
Pierce delay should be at least .5 second.
If your compressor can’t keep up a constant 60-65 psi while cutting, it won’t have enough pressure to fire the torch.
Without a THC, Firecontrol has no way of knowing that the torch didn’t fire. It will still follow the cut path, whether the torch fires or not.
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