I’ve been having a lot of extinguishing issues. The torch always fires the pilot arc successfully, but once the initial arc has pierced there are many times it simply goes out with the air still running. On a good day the torch will extinguish every tenth cut or so, but there have been days I haven’t been able to get past the pilot pierce before it goes out. I’ve run out of ideas to try.
Air - dryness
I used to just use a $5 filter between my plasma cutter and the airline. I’ve since upgraded to a $40 desiccant filter that @jamesdhatch recommended but I’m still having issues.
Air - pressure
I think my air at the end of the line used to be a little low: 60-65psi, but I’ve since corrected to 70-75psi and it hasn’t solved it.
Metal
The metal I’m cutting on can sometimes have a light layer of rust from old splash up on it, which I’ve heard can disrupt the electrical ground back to the machine. But I’ve sanded / wirebrushed the rust away and I’m still having issues.
Height
I have been trying to run my torch slightly higher than the thin shim provided with the Crossfire to be low enough to complete the circuit but also to give myself wiggle room with warped metal. Still no luck.
Speed
The program I’ve been using is a speed test program that does several 4" lines starting at 40ipm to try and see what a good speed is for the ~14ga steel I’m cutting. Each successive line from 40-70ipm has extinguished.
Razorweld
I have seen a few posts about people having similar issues with the Razorweld45. I’m actually running a Razorweld Viper30, but the issues sounded the same. Are there known issues with the Viper30?
What options should I pursue?
Am I correct in assuming the current is somehow breaking?
Thanks so much for your time, kind of getting to my wits end here.
You want the thin shim - 0.06" height. You may scrape the steel on a warped section but if the cut is underway it’ll be okay. Make sure you set you path to avoid previously cut areas so you don’t hit a tip-up. Make sure your torch height is consistent across the whole table.
You covered most everything already. I’ve seen it with thinner (20ga) but 14 shouldn’t be any problem. You can check the height of the water to see if splash is causing the arc to extinguish.
Also make sure you’re not exceeding the duty cycle - for the V30 I think it’s 35%. But you said it can happen early in a cut so unless you were doing another one just before I don’t think it would be an issue but it is something to think about. That’s 3 1/2 minutes out of 10.
I have used the RW viper 30i sinse last november, James is correct that the thin shim works best. Only time i have had the issues you described is a , worn tip and electrode, Bad ground and forgot to turn my compressor on one time. Hope you get it straightened out. things like that kinda take the fun out of it.
I’m not an expert, but you may want to adjust your amps.
I didn’t see you say anything about amperage. I noticed that when I decrease the amps, it makes the torch extinguish at lower speeds than at higher amps. But on the other end of the spectrum, if the amps are too high, and the speed is too low, it runs out of material to cut and dies as well. And torch height makes a difference, too!
Jim Hatch -
Thank you for reminding me about duty cycle - I’m guessing that may have had something to do with some cut quality issues I was having early on with some pieces that had many small piercings. Does having several short cuts in a row “count” towards the duty cycle, or does the added start / stopping and extra air after each cut allow it to cool enough?
Jim T -
How did you solve your bad ground issues? I’m suspecting I have a bad ground since the pilot arc has always fired but I don’t know what else to do other than make sure the clamp is clamped to a spot that is as clean and rust-free as possible and use the thin shim.
JesusLovesYou (indeed He does) -
That’s a good point, I did not mention amperage. In the past I’ve cut a great deal at 30amp but realized I need to turn it down to 25 amps for the set of .06 nozzles I have. I think my speed is at an acceptable range to not be extinguishing based on cuts I’ve made in the past, but I can’t guarantee that’s the issue.
Thank you for the article, the hard numbers for finding a sweet spot are a big help.
Daniel -
My socket is a 30 amp that used to be a dryer socket that we replaced with a welding outlet. I’m not sure of the voltage, but by my understanding it should be 220-240v.
I put the clamp on the water table drain, I made sure the ground wire was tight in the clamp. I also usually run a grinder light and fast across the slats to knock any leavins off and oxidation. So far works well for me.
I got another chance to cut last night. Of 5 batches I tried to cut, I filmed 4 of them and only 2 of them were successful.
Here’s a 2m video of what I recorded.
Ground
I still suspect my problem is the circuit is not completing. The only noticeable pattern I found with the successful cuts was they had the same position for the ground clamp, and there was a different clamp position for every other cut.
To test this theory, on my last batch of cuts (batch #4 in the video), I changed the clamp position for every attempted cut. This did not seem to solve the issue, and each failed.
I took my multimeter and tested the resistance from one end of the metal to the other, where I had the clamp. It ranged anywhere from 0.03 to 0.30. I’ve heard that oxidation on the metal can cause problems with the connection, but that kind of seemed to get blown out of the water with the Langmuir XL table ad I saw on instagram - the metal they cut from was significantly more oxidized than the piece I used on these tests.
I also pulled the ground clamp off and tested the resistance there. It gave me strangely wavering numbers, but of course when I went to record it, the number stayed consistently at 0.03. So I’m guessing I didn’t hold the multimeter tips to the clamp surface firmly enough.
I did tighten the bolts on the clamp as @jimt recommended. I did not do anything to clean up my -very- grimey slats, but since I’m clamping directly to the sheet metal that shouldn’t matter right?
Other notes:
Thin shim for torch height
New-ish consumables
.06 nozzle at 25 amps
Pilot arc worked each time
Cuts didn’t run long enough to worry about duty cycle
Interesting. I had a issue once where i layed a new peice of metal on my table set torch height and it fired fine went a few inches then blew alot of sparks upward and went out. I had a small peice of slag on the slat i happened to set my height on. But im wondering in your case if there could be a loose wire in torch head. Im sure someone alot brighter than i am will jump in soon and give you some ideas. Sux when things dont work right i know.
I took off the cheapo filter, moved to a .08 nozzle at 30 amps. It was a 100% successful run with a few test cuts then a full ~20 cut design. So I’m not sure which of those three things helped, but I’m going to keep going this direction and hope the issue is fixed.
I am having the same problem with a cut 45 cuts for a few seconds and then blows out gonna try all the things that you have tried here first then will report back
