This may seem like another stupid question.
Made my first actual cut yesterday and it went great.
However, the air jet splattered water from the table all over the place. The control cabinet, control screen, and the hypertherm unit box were all coated with water.
Is that normal? Anything I can do to stop that?
Thanks in advance.
I would definitely move the plasma cutter. You can pick locations to cut on the table to reduce the amount of splashing and possibly add shields.
I fill my table to the top i rarely see my control box getting wet. I would try to cover that. My location of my table the floor getting wet doesn’t bother me at all.
I only filled mine to 1" down from the top of the slats. The manuals don’t have anything I could find on fill depth. Pictures I’ve seen on the forums and in the manuals looked to be about that deep, so that is what I used.
Is my air pressure too high do you think?
You can put a spare piece of metal or plastic under the torch when it finishes or move the torch with the FireControl X/Y controls to position the torch over metal as it does the cool down to limit water spray. Having a wireless remote to control the torch position makes it easy to do that movement at the end of the program cut.
Edit:
As Phillip said, it really depends how much water you need to protect the bottom of the pan. The primary reason for the water is to contain lots of small debris, sparks and smoke that would otherwise be in the air and on the floor. If you are cutting thin metal and/or you have the 45 amp cutters, you would be fine with an inch of water for steel and aluminum. If the metal is really thin, you may need the water to help with heat distortion so you might put more water in the table.
For those folks cutting 5/8 inch and thicker plate on a regular basis, they need more water because the torch is moving slower and the air flow from the torch might expose the bottom of the bed to the plasma stream. They will have higher amperage machines capable of having enough power to penetrate the bottom of the water bed.
Some folks find that if they have the water nearly touching stainless steel, they can get a better result so you would fill the bed almost to overflowing. In that case, you can expect much more water on the floor.
Lots of variables like many things with CNC Plasma cutting.
I don’t think air is a issue it is just the nature of the beast.
You want enough water to do the job and protect the bottom of the pan.
I chose to fill mine the way I do because it seems to work for me and the mess isn’t a issue.
Ok, just checking to make sure I’m not doing something wrong.
Thanks folks.
I don’t believe you are doing anything wrong . I would definitely try to change things to keep the control box and the plasma cutter dry.
It’s just a messy feature of water tables. One of the reasons my wife made me move it from the dining room to my shop
When I have to cut near the edge, where I know I am going to get spray, I keep some 20ga aluminum angle (2x2) that I drop in to act as a shield around the edge (open angle down).
Also a good idea to help keep any extra spicy material from leaving the table, if you’re worried about them landing on anything sensitive.
What I found really helped was making a deeper water table. I did the new 14ga mild steel 4" deep table to eliminate the seam and the leaks I got after cutting 1/2" at 65amps. I wish I had done the new table sooner, it really helps reduce the splatter. I also always reposition at the end of a cut so the cooldown happens over a solid area.