Are you using Fusion or SheetCam?
Have you tried just raw GCode? It would be pretty easy to lay down a line of dots with plain G-Code.
What CF system and controller do you have?
I was the following the video in the beginning of this thread before I even found this thread and have a center punch tool set up in sheetcam. It’s a basic 4.5x4.5 square with 5 marks one at each corner and one in the middle. I can get the machine to sometimes fire off on the first hole and then the the rest of the holes the ark will never start but you can hear the machine clicking as if it tried to. Everlast 82i. CF XR
None of those settings look right. With Sheetcam use the Drill operation, not Plasma cut. Set pierce height to about halfway between normal pierce and cut heights (I use 0.093"). Pierce delay I use 0.150 seconds, but I have Mach3 system so no built-in funky delays to trip me up.
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It doesn’t appear as though I can make a drilling tool.
I feel like it’s something so simple I’m missing.
By checking the rotary cutting box I now have the option to do a drill under new rotary tool but then everything really doesn’t look right now.
I misspoke, see:
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Yeah that’s what I thought because I didn’t see anything for a plasma. Lol. I’ll try those exact settings that you have and see what I come up with.
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No go.
Got it to work somewhat. It’s inconsistent and most of time pierces through the plate or doesn’t leave a mark. I raised the Pierce height to 0.72 to get it to start arcing. The first hole always blows straight through. The second hole normally is a nice little dimple but it’s blown through sometimes too. 3rd and fourth holes are pretty good and then it seems like it starts to fade off as in the arc isn’t enough to actually mark the plate and then it’ll go back to piercing all the way through. I’ve tried with THC on and off. Off seems to be more consistent. I tried different air pressures but my machine seems the only be able to go down to about 55 PSI before the solenoid won’t fire. If I crank it up past 75 PSI it blows out the arc before it can get started. Also if I pause the program and start it back up that very first pierce goes all the way through as if I started over fresh. I found that putting the cut and pierce height lower than normal cut height (0.06) improve some things.
Did you try reducing Pierce delay? IMO 0.72 seconds is way too long. I use 0.15 seconds.
Post a GCode snippet of a couple of the marks.
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Yes that’s where I started. I over rided it in Fire Control up to 475% to get to that number. As I increase the number the amount of times that it was actually starting the fire increased so I just kept going.
I’ll go in the back in a bit and go run it again and get some G-Code for you.
I’ve done a bit of messing around with marking points and I have found at least for me the first “peck” went deeper than I wanted so I ended up making an initial peck just off the piece I want to mark and subsequent spots marked were pretty repeatable. Using my Miller 375 Extreme. Haven’t done it for a while and I can’t recall the pierce settings but definitely took some work.
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I was hoping that this wasn’t just a Hypertherm capability. I wonder if anyone else has had success with any of the cheaper brands? Is it possible with any plasma cutter? Do you think it was consistent enough to make letters with it like my test piece?
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I would think pretty much any cutter could mark points once you get it dialled in. I was just marking points for drilling so not sure what repeatability would be when you’re marking points close to each other.
You’ve got me thinking I might just play around some more with it. 
If that is your Sheetcam screen with the code snippets in the tool library, those are a recipe for disaster with a Firecontrol run table. You should not be using path rules or code snippets to add THC on and/or THC off commands. This practice may be necessary on other tables, but it causes nothing but problems with Firecontrol. The post processor inserts commands to turn the THC on and off and Firecontrol automatically turns it on and off based on the torch speed. Any time the torch drops below 85% of the program speed, Firecontrol will turn off the THC.
Pecks like this will be a problem, since Firecontrol artificially extends the delay time for the first pierce. I don’t know why that happens, but I get a larger pierce hole on the first pierce of the program.
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Good catch!
Yes I know. 
That was one of the things Cameron told me when I asked for the code. I was trying to follow that video to the T. 
He informed me that anything below 85% IPM would automatically turn THC off. It’s just in the library now. Have a look over my path rules to see if I need anything changed please.
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I’m not sure why you would slow down for the first .6" of the cut loop. If the pierce delay is correct, I don’t see any need for that.
The slow downs for corners can be much closer than you have programmed. .6" before and .4" before is going to leave you with excess dross leading into the corners. The Sheetcam default is .1969"
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Thank you. I was just following along trying to learn by trial and error. Obviously more error lol. At the time I didn’t realize that FC did some things automatically and I don’t understand what parameters work best.
Any other info you’d like to share is welcomed with an open mind.
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