[solved] What is causing this jaggedness

[Teknic]

So this is my 4th test cut panel, just dialing in leads to minimize cratering, still a little bit on the “o” but I can probably shift the start point and fix that easily.

This is on regular 45A consumables at 250ipm in this 16G steel.

Also I was worried about the rated Kerf size for this machine being .053 as I felt that was a bit large even for the standard consumables. Dialing in those holes I found them about .02 off each, dropped the kerf to .043 and now each circles tolerance is .01+/-, with small circles cutting at 60% speed. That’s more than good for my needs so not gonna bother dialing in more.

Now to swap and test FineCut consumables

Oh and to stay on topic, this was cut on the exact part of the table that my last “jaggedness” ever appeared.

[Teknic]

First real cut with the 45xp, running standard consumables, as I discovered I didn’t have the correct swirl ring for the finecuts

[Phillipw]

So how does the refrigerated air dryer working?

[Teknic]

Seems to be doing great, temp hangs at 34-35degrees, cuts have been coming out gorgeous, check out the edge look on my test pieces. Motorguard near the plasma is bone dry still. Good peace of mind even if it didn’t solve my issue

[Phillipw]

you will love the copper plus electrodes. If cutting under 1/2 and something like under 30 second be cut ( each fire) it will double pierces.

[Teknic]

Good to know one of my kits came with I think 2 or 3 of them so I’ll definitely test them out. I don’t see them listed as being used with finecut consumables, is that how you use them?

[Phillipw]

No I do kinda production runs on 1/4. I get 1500 plus pierces dot sure exactly cut time. I make washer for the company I work for.here is a sample picture

[Teknic]

Awesome work! I’ll have to reach out to them and see if they’ll work with FineCut. Regardless this machine is just so nice

[Phillipw]

I don’t see why they won’t work if you look in your manual it lists the same electrode for all operations.

[bender]

I just set up my Crossfire Pro and Im having some issues with the cut quality. I hope you guys can help me with this issues. I have no air dryer yet, but Im looking to get one a refrigerated air dryer.

When seeing the washers you cut in 1/4 material, do you get tapered sides? Or are tapered sides not avoidable at this material thickness?

My corners are beveled pretty much too, I tried to run it slower in the corners, but the THC puts some errors randomly which says it lost voltage, due to bad clamping, too high cut hight, or interfering lines.

May moisture cause this error too?

Besides that, big dross at the down side of the material appears almost every time. I tried some troubleshooting tips, but its still pretty much showing up.

[Phillipw]

I as satisfied with the taper I get. A plasma will generally cut some sort of taper. These parts doesn’t matter other than looks.
Dry air is a must. What plasma are you running with what amps and speed?

[Phillipw]

First picture is raw off of the table. I do bulk clean up in a concrete mixer using the waste from the holes as tumbling media.

[Teknic]

Losing voltage error can be just bad consumables, but you’d need to post your full details, sort of like how I list everything in this first post, easiest to make a separate post to get more eyes on it.

As for bevel, some bevel is normal so it depends on how much bevel you’re getting.

[toolboy]

@bender most common issues with bevel are the follwoing…

• torch is to high or to low…see picture…
• wrong direction of travel for torch…inside cuts work best with clockwise cut direction…outside works best with outside cuts…
• also is your torch square to the table,

[Teknic]

Everything I’ve cut so far with new torch/plasma machine. No jagged edges anywhere, couple learning mistakes, but nothing that isn’t my fault. I’m officially comfortable saying this is solved. Usually I’d get jagged edges on every other cut.

[bender]

Thanks for the pics Phillip. So it looks like the angle is almost rectangular from the top to the sides. I will post some pics of my first test cuts, but I think the taper on my parts is way too big, what could be the reason of a too big cut height.

Also the edges on the lower side are very round, I tried the feed compensation, but THC fails stopped the trials.

I started the suggested 0.063inch from the LS vids. And used all settings from those instructions. When lowering to about 0.05inch at least the massive dross on the backside sometimes disappears on one side, which looks like the torch isnt really perpendicular to the workpiece/table. At least the slide of the z-axis is, but I guess I have to check if the Torch head really is.

Regarding my setup, I have the Crossfire Pro with the Razorcut 45 directly from LS. Just set up everything, completely new. Table and cutter didnt even run half an hour so far.

I really haven´t found some good settings, regarding amps and feeds. Excessive backside dross is the biggest issue, followed by tapers. It is cut through, but it all looks like it isnt cut well through.

The nozzle seems to be 0.9mm, as the bore gauge indicates. But it looks like the hole isnt centered in some way by eye. I think I will just change it, after I tested the angle of the torch towards the table.

At the moment, I really can´t test that much, because no matter how low I set the cut or piercing height, i get thc voltage losses randomly at piercing or mid cut. Workpieces are clean, clamp is right on an even grinded part of the workpiece.

So I hope its the moisture in the air, causing the arc to fail randomly. That wasnt mentioned in the troubleshooting guide as a possible reason for this, but I`ve read some posts here, mentioning some ppl had issues like that because of wet air. And my air is very moist, I can even see water in the stream of the air gun even when the tank has been drained jsut some hours ago.

So I`ll get me a refridgerated dryer.

Thanks for the responses so far.

[Phillipw]

Sounds like you have a lot going on.

First read and read. Do a search on forum for bevel and tapered cut. Hypertherm has some info the good and bad side of plasma. I think that’s the the name of it.

You have to address your water before you will have much success. My system I have a after cooler on compressor with 110 gallon storage. A aftercooler after that goes into refrigerated air dryer. When it hits my shop line I went at the end where my plasma, blast cabinet and powder coating system pulls from a 30 gallon dry air tank. Each place also has a water oil separator with filter. ( which I have never seen moisture in the bottom drain). Even bead cells will help just make sure you have a filter to catch stray pieces.

Start with small piece a circle or square make one change at a time and see difference. Torch must be square. I usually square individual pieces off of the torch holder ( use shims whatever to make square).

We will answer any questions you have but also most questions you have will already be answered somewhere on here. Sometimes they are hard to find.

[Teknic]

If you’ve got that much water in your air your consumables are probably shot already. You should also go thru and check you have enough air going thru your system as well, some of the RW45s you need to open brand new and crank the air regulator up to get ~70-75 psi while cutting. Lack of air can cause the voltage loss error message.

Using hand torch or machine torch?

[bender]

Thanks for the repsonses. I will get a refridgerated dryer and a filter/separator to keep the stuff out of the air.

Do you need the cooler for the plasma cutter? Is the air, reaching the cutter still that warm? I would guess, when made to plasma in the cutter the air temp doesnt play a big role?

The dry air tank is a special tank, which keeps the air dry, besides just storing it close to the consuming machines to provide higher flow rates, avoiding long tubes from the compressor? Sorry, if that question myb be dumb

You put shims below the workpart, or do you align the torch head with shims? Sorry, english isnt my first language.

How do you measure, if the torch head is square to the tabel/workpiece? The mounting on the Slide ok, but the torch head itself is pretty short and has no really straight faces on it to measure.

Teknic, I have a hand torch, which may lean to one side because of the grip and the weight of the cable.

And as you say this, I wondered if the air pressure is too low, because the regulator in the cutter is set to about 60 psi flow pressure and maybe 75 or 80 psi static pressure, which I already felt it was set too low. The air lines in the cutter are pretty small, so I guess my compressor should be able to deliver a higher pressure at flow, since it has about twice the flow rate stated on in the manual of the rw45 sais it would need.

Thanks so far guys, I will get the above mentioned stuff and some new comsumables and to some more test runs

[Phillipw]

The idea of the refrigerated air dryer is to remove moisture I use mine at compressor. Makes all air dryer. Moisture is death on consumables.

My dry air tank is just a reservoir so nothing starves for air

I shim workpiece. I remove torch holder and use a square. Especially if I need square edge. The more you cut on a set of slats the more uneven it can be.