Hello I have a good program making multiple parts. Randomly the cut will not cut a profile. Any ideas
1/8 hot rolled steel
85ipm 45amp pierced delay 1 sec 80psi
Setting
Pierce .150
Cut height .125
What cutter?
I am certainly no expert, but I will gladly share what has been drummed into my thick skull by many patient fellows on this forum.
From your settings, I assume you are running a Hyp.45 sync. Have you actually measured the cut height you are using? Mine measured in 25 thou over the CAMed in setting. Had to set the cut height to .100 to get an actual .125.
If you are cutting over a water table you may need to reduce your speed. I dropped 20% on mine and it made a big difference.
I would also suggest dropping your pierce delay to 0.5 sec.
Is it possible you have a bad work lead connection, it almost looks like you are on pilot arc only. (been there, done that)
Good luck.
1 Like
What is plot arc. I use fusion . Yes I have a 45 sync
The pilot arc is what fires first and ignites the main arc that does the cutting. It runs for about 3 seconds, and if the main arc doesn’t ignite, it shuts off. If the work lead connection is bad or even non existant, the main arc won’t ignite, but the pilot will run it’s 3 second course. I’ve had this happen on thicker plate, where all I got was a 3 second gouge before it shut off. Turns out I hadforgotten to hook up the work clamp to the material.
I’m only suggesting this as a possibility as that uncut area on your picture looked awfully familiar.
The ground clam was on the steel it’s on the front of the table. The parts were from the same steel at the same time . So that’s why I am trying to figure it out this is from a video I made
Have you been cutting with these setting much, and is this the first time things have screwed up?
It looks like the torch isn’t firing. How old is the cartridge, fine cut or standard? If it is fine cut, you are maxing it right out and it could have failed prematurely.
What got drilled into my head was to check the actual cut and pierce heights and not trust the program settings to be accurate. It is worth it.
I just got my crossfire pro up and running it’s brand new. made a few parts not many with 18ga and 14 ga steel . I am using the fine tip .before I just the parts. I took a 1/8 scrap to test feed rates and finish. I will test the heights tomorrow. Thanks
There is a program floating around on the forum that you can run to test your heights. Since I too have a 45 sync, I modfied that program to be directly applicable to this cutter. Load it into Firecontrol and run it a few times to get the feel of what it is doing. IT WILL NOT FIRE THE TORCH.
It will run out a bit and then start the Initial Height Sequence (IHS). The torch will touch down to find zero, then retract and drop to the pierce height of 0.150". It is here that I inserted a 10 second pause to allow you to pause the Firecontrol program. Once Firecontol is paused, you have all the time in the world to measure the pierce height with good feeler gauges.
Go back and hit “resume” on Firecontrol and the program will continue to run, and once the built in 10 second pause has run its course, the torch will drop to a cut height of 0.125", and stop and just sit there. You can now measure the cut height.
Do this a couple of times to confirm the difference between the “program” heights and the “actual” heights.
Mine measured 0.025" too high, so i had to go back into the CAM program (I use sheetcam) and reset the cut/pierce program heights to give me the proper heights.
Don’t forget, if you are using the fine cut cartridge the cut and pierce heights should both be 0.140, so you will have to adjust accordingly.
Take care.
cut height test (P 150 C 125).tap (224 Bytes)
Yea it was off
Pierce cut was at.172 and cut was at .143
Thank you for the help
What you could do now, if you are feeling intrepid, is to open that cut test program in Notepad++ and find the pierce and cut height settings. They will be followed with a lable in parentheses.
Delete just these numbers and insert your new numbers in their place. For example, your pierce height was 22thou too high. So for the new pierce height insert .128. Make the appropriate change to the cut height then save this new test program as a .tap file. Name it something like 45sync height test.tap or whatever you like, and save it.
You will now have a test program for your specific setup. Load it into Firecontrol and run it a few times to double check everything.
The torch should now drop down to the actual heights you want. This will confirm the new settings that you will now insert into your CAM program for pierce/cut heights.