New Crossfire Pro User with problems

Welcome and let us help you…we are all here to help so let me ask a few other questions…

  • What design (CAD) software are you using?
  • What Post Processing (CAM) software are you using to take the CAD drawing to Gcode for the table?
  • what are you settings on the CAM software for the following?
    Amps
    Cut Speed (feed rate)
    Pierce delay
    Pierce height
    Plunge rate
    cut height
    Outside offset or inside offset

is it the compressor I hear running all the time in the background of the video?..if it is then you are having a problem providing enough air…

I ask this because what I see in the video show me a lot of these settings are off…
One thing about CNC plasma cutting is you will spend 75% designing what you want…5% set-up time on the table…5% cutting time…10% cleaning and painting…and 5% with the finished product in your hand…

Hey mate, I have checked those ones first thing this morning. Motor wires are all good, the screw bearings all look fine.

Yes, 316 @ 0.6mm

Turns out I can’t becuase the forum says the file is too many characters.

Interesting, both the book and the email Langmuir sent me when I purchased it specced a compressor that could do 6.3CFM @ 65PSI

So I had this set at 65PSI

I’ll bump it up to 75PSI and see if that changes anything.

Yes. Although seems I need my laptop unpligged or the THC thing fails, which is annoying, as the laptop I wanted to use is an old shitter that I’d not care if it got damaged. Instead I have to use my newer, good laptop that can run on battery. Nowehere in any documentation can I find out how to get around this.

That should be it?

Yes, first thing I did out of the box. Saw a video on youtube where someone didn’t, and they let out the magic smoke the instant they plugged it in.

I’ve checked that this morning, they seem fine.

I did run a bit of bearing grease along them, just a light dusting, as I don’t want to attrract dirt and grime into the mech to foul it either.

Yeah, out of the box mine was set to like, 40PSI. So now I can crank it all the way to 85, and use the regulator on my dryer to make better adjustment.

Fusion 360

SheetCam with the Langmuir Plugin

Set at the machine manually, not via software

1,000mm/min

2.5 seconds

1.5mm (Which after googling a lot of people said 0.06 inches, which is 1.524mm)

100mm/min

1.5mm (Which after googling a lot of people said 0.06 inches, which is 1.524mm)

Depends on which profuile I’m cutting, letters are inside on the settings, but they seem to be cutting outside…despite the fact that they are set on the indide. I’m having whole chunks of text fall out, not be neatly cut.

Yes. Cut out is at 120PSI, Cut in is at 80 PSI.

How do you say that? I’m getting 65 PSI without fail? Which is what the boox says to feed it.

Hey toolboy,

This is also my air setup to provide as much Capacity as possible:

So I have 100l on the compressor itself, and 120l on the blue tank, for 220l of Capacity.

Which seems good enough to maintain the specified 65psi in the manual.

Though 75psi shouldn’t be an issue given where my cut in and out is, as it can drop to 80psi and then hold 80psi from there.

This is the equivalent to four inches per minute which is way too slow for plunge rate.

Switch this somewhere between 60 and 80 ipm?

Someone might have some sheetcam specific advice for the plunge rate

Besides going over empty space this is another reason your Arc is extinguishing.

I would change your Pierce height to 4 and 1/2 mm

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That’s pretty thin material I would be way faster than the 40 in per minute you’re currently running.

.6mm is that the equivalent to 26 gauge?

And when I cut stainless I like to cut closer than mild steel .02"

Stainless is probably one of the most finicky materials you could have started with.

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This was just the default in the program, I’ll up it.

So around 2,000mm/min?

Well that’s it, it shouldn’t be over empty space, as it’s dropping huge sections out and gouging the metal unfortunately. It’s not precise :sob:

Though could be as I increase speeds that could work.

I was more going slow to avoid the X-Axis chatter.

No idea, up until a post the other day on Reddit, I’d never heard of Gauges.

So once I get the X-axis sorted, what sort of speeds should I be running? 2,000mm/min? 3,000mm/min? Faster?

When I get back to the computer I’ll start running the imperial metric conversions.

Maybe for the remainder of this topic we should try to express our answers in both metric and imperial.

If you could post some pictures of your assembly that might be helpful the bearing blocks and the threaded nuts. There may be something someone will pick it out from a picture. You should be able to run smoothly back and forth at 300 in per minute (7,620 millimeters per minute)

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Post the *.tap or *.NC instead of copying and pasting all the content

Yeah fair enough, I can do the Conversion.

I normally don’t work in inches as it’s such an obscure system. Though I suppose it is a US built machine.

That might also explain why movements aren’t exactly in increments of single mm, I tell it to move 1mm and it moves like, 0.98mm per movement in any axis. At least on the screen it says it moved 0.98mm

I live in Canada so I have to do both all the time.

But for the benefit of future viewers of this topic if we just put in both conversions that will help a lot.

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So thanks to everyone here, I got a “successful” cut

I have to slow down slightly to get full cutting depth, as I had to hand torch the last bit.

The THC is still a bit finicky, so I have to learn it’s little eccentricity (what I find interesting is that almost no reviews that I could find even discuss the torch height controller or how to work with it)

But here is the first successful part!

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That’s awesome to hear you got it going. The follow-up video is very much appreciated for future viewers of this topic.

quick note on your pierce delay. The initial pierce in a run is always a bit longer than every other pierce i forget the exact time but it’s noticeable, this has something to do with pre-flow/post flow.

What i do before i start running a program is in the top left of firecontrol ill do a manual torch on, then turn it right back off, then hit start while the post flow is still running. Makes it so all your pierces are exactly the same.

This had nothing to do with any of your issues but its one of those things i wish i knew right at the start as it helps you tune your machine.

Looks like the table is running good now you’re down to tuning your settings for the plasma.

What kind of info are you interested in about the THC? It seems more complicated than it is in reality, it wants to be at a specific voltage for its best cutting, as you cut the voltage changes from the initial setting. To add more voltage the torch goes up and to reduce voltage the torch goes down. So typically any THC issue is related to it not seeing the real voltage for whatever reason (one you seem to have discovered is the interference issue with plugged in laptops or desktops, there’s a fix in a Pinned post here for that btw)

that signs looking good for getting things figured out, good luck!

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More getting it tuned so I can have the laptop plugged in.

Which I will now go find, as that was exactly the main one.

The other one is the fact that sometimes when it drops its voltage and stops the cut it will make you restart it from that same run.

However if I am three quarters of the way through a line then the first three quarters of my run will not have any contact with anything because it will be cutting air.

This one’s up leading to a bit of a loop where it just constantly throws errors after it throws an error.

So I end up having to turn off the torch height control run it for a moment let it catch up to where it was pause it and then manually turn the torch control back on and start going again.

If you want to have it plugged in while cutting you will need to use a ground adapter or usb isolator. I have seen recent posts from Langmuir offering to send a usb isolator.

I did a google search and it appears there are options for ground adapters running euro 220 power but I’m not personally familiar with them.

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https://forum.langmuirsystems.com/t/fix-firecontrol-freezing-due-to-interference-l1-inductor-mod/10222/4

@72Pony this mod to the MCB is supposed to take care of the interference issue completely, no chokes or running off battery. I havent done it yet personally as i just use a battery laptop anyway but one day ill do it lol. Everyone says it works tho, the newest shipment of machines will have it done already

@That_Car_Dude_Aus yea the auto restart cut is a bit of pain, it saves you but it isnt perfect. Bigger issue is finding out why your cut is dying and then you cana void that. Is it something easily reproducible or just random? if its reproducible best thing is to get a screen cap video of fire control while its running and when the issue happens, maybe we can spot something. Also keep an eye on the torch Z Axis and see if its rising until it quits firing thats usually the cause of unfinished long cuts, couple different causes buit hard to pin down without knowing exactly whats going on at the time

I have seen that mod but I don’t think it solves all of the issues of having the laptop plugged in. The THC can still get interference if the computer is sharing the same ground as the control box. Since outlets in most buildings are all grounded to the same ground in the main panel the only way to avoid this is to use a two prong non grounded plug or a ground adapter.

I purchased my table a year ago and it came with that modification already completed.

See below post from Langmuir 3 days ago.

langmuir-reilly

3d

Hey Neil,

We’re familiar with an issue that affects THC while the laptop’s charger is plugged in. The grounding circuit is pushing a small amount of voltage through your computer’s USB port, which is adding errant voltage to the THC module. You can try the following:

  1. Only use FireControl while your laptop computer is disconnected from its charging cable
  2. Replace your grounded 3-prong laptop charger with an ungrounded 2-prong laptop charger
  3. Use a USB isolator between the USB cable and USB port

The forum is an excellent resource full of helpful and knowledgeable people, but feel free to reach out to us at support@langmuirsystems.com as well for additional support!

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Hey mate,

Seems to be fairly random so I’m not exactly sure what I can do to reproduce it because my latest cut on if you get a completely done with absolutely no glitches or anything.

Now it’s just more a Fusion 360 problem of figuring out why sometimes I can get things to export fine and then other times they just don’t seem to want to export as a dxf.

Because of things export neatly as a dxf I get inside and outside profiles and I can adjust my cuts in sheetcam according to the profiles much faster.

If I have to export it is a sketch it just decides it wants to export them as one single thing with no names or anything of the profiles and I have to set up all the cuts manually.

However my second cut was for a military sign from one of my old units and I managed to get that cut out completely fine and I’ve got a mate coming around from that unit this afternoon so I will make him up one.

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Check out this video and exporting DXFs from Fusion 360

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Yeah I have watched a few.

Sometimes Fusion just chucks an absolute fit when I go to export things.

Move text 0.1mm or adjust the text size and suddenly it’s happy

Thought I’m probably going to be doing more car parts than text, so that’s a relief.

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