Today I made a couple of Fire Extinguisher hangers. I designed them in Fusion 360 saved the design as a DXF and sent it to SheetCAM to generate the gcode. I designed them to have three mounting holes. I wanted to just mark the hole location (just to try it out) and then cut out the main bracket.
I ended up doing two complete separate operations. I first laid out the design on a piece of scrap to make sure I had enough room, then loaded in and ran the marking gcode. I then turned up the amperage loaded in the cut file and cut the bracket out.
My question is, is there a way I can do both operations with one gcode? Say with a 30 second delay in between the marking and cutting operations so I would have time to turn up the amperage.
You can add in a code snippet and do a M0 between each operation.
My understanding is that Firecontrol does not fully understand what M0 is. The program will pause as requested but you have to press pause, then resume to carry on. Just pressing resume wont do anything. I have not tested this with the latest version of Firecontrol but it was the case with previous versionsâŚ
Well, good question. I canât say that I even tried it and cutting amps. My Hypertherm manual states for marking to turn the amps down to 9 and 19 amps. And it seemed to work well. It even marked the outline of my bracket when I forgot to turn up the amps. LOL
I could of just programed it to cut the holes on this little project. It was more of a learning experience then anything.
Ok I think I had read a post with something about a razor weld 45 and had that on the brain.
Did not know you had a Hypertherm that makes a big difference.
Isnât there markings consumables for the hypertherm?
@Just-For-Fun you said you wanted 30 seconds to turn up the amps. Are you changing consumables as well? If not you may be wearing out your consumables faster.
@Phillipw The marking consumables for the Hypertherm 45 Sync is the Fine Cut Cartridge which is the one I am using. Which brings up a good point because the whole exercise is to learn how all this stuff works together. In the future I want to build a 2 x 48 Belt grinder like @ds690 did.
So all that all being said, I may have to change consumables between the marking and the cutting operations. But with the pro tip from @Craig1 on inserting the Code Snippet between the drilling and cutting operations, there will be plenty of time. I tried it today and it works just as he described.
if youâre not concerned about hardening the holes initially to manually drill them out later then you could just start both operations with the higher amperage. If thatâs the concern then you could have the torch pierce from a higher starting point so as not to add too much heat to the holes? all youâre trying to do is create a centerpunch anyways to drill out later.
I use the drill/centerpunch feature in sheetcam all the time with no issues with drilling them out later.
Iâll have to try it. I understand and it makes since that cutting the hole makes it real hard to tap later. I wonder how hard it will be to drill later for tapping if you just punching a small hole with the drilling operation.
I have tried to drill out holes (5/8") that were undersized and it was brutal. But a pierce in the center would not be as bad, I would imagine. I would definitely use drill press with cobalt drill bit and cutting fluid.
i donât change any parameters other than maybe having a shorter pierce delay for the drill operation. the pecks it makes barely creates a divot but its enough to use as a guide for the drill later.
Just want to mark centers lightly,doesnt hardened hole easy to drill and tap afterwards. these I did on my XR table with Hypertherm powermax 45 XP at 45 amps and .1 delay. Drill bit 1/16" mark is about 1/32" deep
With SheetCAM, would you set the peck up with a different tool or can you change the settings of the cut/pierce height on different layers?
Fusion 360 will not allow you to change the tool within the same set-up on the hobby license. (FYI for other readers)
Edit: I think you already answered me: it is the âdrill âtoolââ that you set up. So it would be a different tool. One more plus for SheetCAM license (one time purchase) in addition to the center mark and center start of holes.
Yes, with the use of a Code Snippet. You can add the snippet in-between the drill operation and the cut operations. Itâs pretty slick, I tried it yesterday.
