All right. Got my THC questions answered, got my pierce delay mostly figured out.
Now on to cut settings and quality. It’s not where I want it to be for artsy stuff but for straight line accuracy and size, we are there.
I found some play in my x-axis, so some bearing adjustment will take care of that. Beyond that i believe it’s speeds and pierce delay and making sure the torch is mounted and squared. Once I’ve got all that done I’ll swap in new consumables and give it a whirl.
Meh. Like every other forum I start on, my personal thread drops off a cliff. I added a bottom shelf, van stone flanges for drains, got some SterlingCool plasma cut. RV tank…
Think I ruined some consumables by not plugging in my HF dryer, about to run some cuts and see how we do. I’m not happy with my cuts because I can see where the lead ins and outs are on all of them. Also had a slight bevel.
I adjusted my eccentric bearings for the z, hoping that helps.
I’m also beginning to think that there may behoove me to strategically place my start points. Is this the right track? I probably could have read this somewhere, but I like to learn by doing…
I’m seriously considering a long form video titled, “So you want to start cnc plasma cutting stuff?”
I’m late to the party and you may have figured it out but I noticed that there was no pierce delay in the code that you posted.
I have seen where book settings for pierce delay are too short with how the software is configured currently. I’m adding anywhere from .2 to .5 seconds to book settings so that it pierces completely before traversing.
The only other thing that I’ve done is add a .5 second pause after each cut.
Got my drain setup finally figured out. Bought a 13 gal RV tank but it was a hair too small. Got a 16 gal to replace it but its got an weird main fitting 1.25 od.
With the right tubing and a clamp it just looks hacked. So, I’m going to drill a hole in the top And let my table drain straight down and melt the “boss fitting” closed.
I went with the 16 gal because I wanted the smallest footprint for my under table shelf.
Refill is happening with a little harbor freight Drummond 10 gpm pump. I may hook it to a dead mans pedal, may not and just use my power strip to toggle it on and off. It will only be filled once a week really so not a huge deal.
I’ll post pictures when it’s done.
Finally, my water height is uneven between table halves. Ive leveled the table, but I think some metal shavings wedged in between the tray and the rail when using the self tappers. Or perhaps my slats are uneven and the table is still not level?
I’ve noticed that the water height was off when leveled also. The left side is “fuller” for me. I chocked it up to the water tray warping when I welded the two halves together. Can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind to get a new tray bent up locally.
I have the same thing. Looking at the slats now to make sure they are square with the X axis bar. Of course the THC should aleviate some of that, but if the piece being cut is at an angle, then you will see more bevel in the piece that is being cut I would say.
Here’s the final drain and fill setup. 16 gallon rv tank from amazon, harbor freight pump, some tubing and right angle barbs. Fills back through the drain pipes. Very very nice. I think this is about as clean and compact as I could make it.
I was initially using the 1.25 OD “boss fitting” on the RV tank but it leaked even with the right size tubing and a clamp cranked to high hell. Plus the adaptor setup was too big. I melted that closed and drilled a hole in the top of the tank and put the PVC pipe right in it. Used a silicone funnel to clean up the look.
It just amazes me all the people I see on here putting their plasma cutters, controllers and other electrical item under a water table that’s hooked to 240 volts AC. A leak and you could destroy thousands of dollars of equipment in a few minutes as well as getting a good electric shock or maybe even killing you.
I can see the potential for trouble. Seems like it would have to be one hell of a leak. There’s no way the control box or plasma cutter will get submerged, so it would have to get splashed just right.
Thinking about it now though, I’m going to see if I can find alternate spots for those two items and use the bottom shelf for the fluid and then metal remnant storage. I had a plan to stop the splashing over the edges, but it would probably be best to not have to worry about that at all.
I have installed my control box on the wall, 6 feet above floor and plasma cutter about 4 feet above the floor about both about 2 feet to the right of the table. It would be almost impossible for water to reach the control box and plasma cutter.
That was my thought when I bought the 10ft Dsub 5pk. Figured it would be a problem someday. I assembled as instructed, but havent moved my box yet.
Great ideas out here.
Same, control box is attached directly to the wall and plasma is on a small shelf 4 feed above the ground. Refrigerated dryer is sitting on 4x4 wood blocks for now to keep it off the floor but I’ll be making a shelf for it as well. Too much money invested to risk frying all this stuff with an overnight leak.
Do you have some sort of filter inline? I’m trying to decide if I should filter the water as it enters the tank with a whole house filter or something similar that’s easy to maintain. Or run no filter and let the sediment settle to the bottom over night and pump relatively clean water back up into the tray and maybe clean out the settled debris from tanks a few times a year.
That sounds easier. Gravity drain down into the tanks and a simple 1 way pump back through a filter on it’s way back up. Clean the heavy sediment that rests at the bottom a few times a year.
After the subtle reminder that water could destroy my dream tool setup, I found a new configuration that works far better than my previous one. Rotated the table, plasma will go on the wall by the compressor. Control box will either go on the wall or on the outside of the frame rail as designed. Now I can slide a full sheet onto the table easier and can roll my welding cart and press out of the way quicker.
Tonight’s projects.
