I have made bigger projects, just started having these issues recently
woah…ok…strange
gotta ask…how is your air quality then
double and triple check air…nice and dry and plenty of pressure
Just because it feels dry doesn’t mean it is. It needs to be cooled to bring the moisture out. Post a picture of your consumables. Swirls around the electrode = moisture. I was helping a guy out earlier today through Facebook. He was going from tank to filter to plasma in less than 10 feet of hose. Was trashing consumables very quick, with the telltale swirls.
Let me guess, cut quality has decreased since the weather warmed up?
What is your entire air setup. Mine is compressor (with Aftercooler between pump and tank). 40 foot copper manifold with 4 drops, harbor freight refrigerated dryer, filter/desiccant combo, motorguard m60, then plasma.
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Yeah, very small workspace…compressor with maybe 10-12 feet of line with another 5 feet from plasma to drop down.
Have 2 desiccant dryers …one out of compressor and one just before plasma.
I need a dryer for sure, but $$ is hard to come by right now
Yeah man. You need more cooling. An Aftercooler will drop the air 200 degrees before it hits the tank. Plasma is a fickle dame.
A 4-6 drop copper manifold may be enough for you at that point. I didn’t have enough line before my refrigerated dryer and it wasn’t able to be as efficient as it could. Now that I have the manifold my desiccant lasts a lot longer. Not as long as it did in the winter, but it’s a ton better than last summer.
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go to this thread…
I made a copper pipe cooler and went from 150 pierces to over 500 in one day
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Looks like some more research on my end. So do I add the aftercooler then the lines then to plasma or what…completely new at the air side of things
The best way is to plumb the aftercooler between the compressor outlet and the tank, giving you maximum upstream temperature drop and condensation storage. The tank will then remove more heat and condense more water, but in amounts that you can manage with the tank drain.
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@DDCW
so like Jemejia has said…ideally between the pump head and the first storage tank…ideally…gut if you are like me I am running off a smaller compressor and am not able at this time to modify it.
so i placed my copper cooler system right after the compressor itself…and I run fan on it…because once you start cutting the warm air will make it to copper lines.
do a search on the forum for aftercooler…compressor cooler…there is a lot here…and some great ideas.
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This is my master thread for Aftercooler info with parts links.
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Well…after I installed 25’ of extra lines w/ 3 drains to cool and dry my air, i found a lil problem…i had forgot to put in desiccant I’m both my filters!!! LOL…feel kinda dumb now, but hey, I shouldn’t have many more issues with moisture…
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ooops:smirk:
as they say S%&$% T happens…
so I check my desiccant each cutting day…and as soon as it gets half color change I change the whole thing with new dry beads.
I actually have a white board on the wallnear my table that has a list of items to check before I cut.
- air on
- valves open
- reset torch position
- check material clamp
- dryer on and beads good
- compressor on
- plasma flow check
- material clamp on
- magnetic pencil in hand (for tip-ups)
…
…
even with this list we sometimes get anxious to cut something the scramble to keep it going
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