I had a small catastrophy about a week ago. X axis cable got snagged on a frame bolt and ripped the wires out of my stepper motor. I fixed that problem. Motor works now but that shorted out my step driver. Going to fix that next. My trouble is that this happend part way through cutting a sign for a customer. Now i have no zero on the machine to start in the same place. I know where i was in the program and where on the plate my last pierce was. Using that information is it possible to find my old zero and salvage what i was already half way through cutting or is it a loss? I would imagine this could be done. Any and all advice is much appreciated.
Zero where you thought you were when you originally cut the piece. Jog the crosshairs on the screen to a feature that has already been cut. See how far away the torch is from that feature on the metal. Adjust your zero point and check again.
Do this with a couple of points and you will get really close to the original zero.
4 Likes
The first question would be have you moved the material?
David! This sounds like you may have some first hand knowledge on this sort of thing. Really nice description/advice.
1 Like
I have had experience. Unfortunately, in my case the torch caught a tip up and dragged the sheet. I had to check points and adjust the sheet numerous times before I got it close enough to send it.
4 Likes
So i have just tried the advice. Went to what i thought was my original zero. Moved to the last lead in where the machine failed on fire control, wrote down x and y position. Then i moved the torch to the last lead in on the plate and wrote down that position. Subtracted the differance from the 2 x and y postions. Using the number from the differance i moved the torch to those numbers, re zeroed and now it appears that i am right on target when i tram over to the last lead in cut. Hit return to zero and can move back to what visually looks to be right on the money when i move back to that lead in position.
2 Likes
Normally, I might make a joke about JB Weld at this point but at the cost of metal, it is no laughing matter.
Fingers crossed…
3 Likes
I never remember to do it, but I would advise using the manual torch fire to pierce a hole at your zero point on larger pieces. This will make it easier to find zero in the case of a mishap.
6 Likes
I might be a little late to the conversation so please excuse if I covered material that’s already been discussed but I had a similar situation where I had to get to a known position after the sheet moved and start the program at an intermediate point.
I went to the portion of the program where the torch stopped and noted the X and Y location. Then I moved the torch tip physically to that location in the X and Y by eyeball I imagine a laser pointer on the torch Mount would be extra handy but I just went by eye.
Next I move the cursor in the fire control software to the X and Y read out boxes in the upper right hand corner of the fire control screen and just clicked on X and typed in the known value I wanted it to recognize, then repeated for the Y and enter that value in the Y position box… And that’s all it took.
I guess the moral of the story is if you can physically put the torch tip at a location and find that location in the program you can preload the x and y coordinate for that location and reassign the whole coordinate system to the new values.
I’ve used a lot of Burny controlled plasmas and and FANUC controlled Amada lasers and this fire control software is just absolutely fantastically easy to use and well thought out.
Hope that helps, John
4 Likes
I will have to remember that advice should something like this occur again or have a tip up collision. I had no idea that you could enter numbers in for the x and y coordinates in the upper right corner. Excellent tip. Funny how an easier way always comes to light after you do things the hard way. Thank you.
1 Like
Good luck, yes it’s a good little trick to remember 