This is the biggest pile of shit I’ve ever seen. Filled and emptied 3 times do to leaks. Called and complained, was sent another tube of sealant and low and behold it leaks again. Apparently I can’t upload a video or photo. Guess we’re going for number 4. Not an engineer but it sure seems that having only 2 pieces sure would have simplified this.
Is it leaking from the area where the sealant was used? Or could maybe there be a pinhole weld leaking where there is not sealant used?
I’ve heard of people using compressed air to blast around all the seams while the tables full to see where it’s leaking ,could pinpoint the issue. (Blasting air from the bottom side up so the bubbles come through the water)
A lot of langmuir s design decisions are based around shipping this product so that’s why the four individual pans.
Have you done any cutting on your table yet?
Welcome to The Forum @frazer28
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Thanks tinwhisperer for the reply. I’ll try that next, as I’ve emptied and refilled leaks begin appearing in new spots. I’ll try the compressed air trick
I’ve cut a few things on it, I’ve never used a plasma table before so I’m not a great judge I’d guess. I’m not happy with holes, for example a project requiring 3/8” holes doesn’t come out great. And without a carbide bit you cannot drill them to size either. Still playing with settings but it’s tough when I’m spending every free minute playing with the water table
Once that leaks been isolated I’m sure some settings can dial in your holes somewhat better. Bevels on plasma is a fairly normal experience.
There’s some feed optimization settings where you slow down the holes by 50 or 60% to improve their quality.
Start a new topic about that once the leak is dealt with
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I have built min, but not filled with water yet. There are plenty of places a weld could have a pinhole through the tray, or just not getting the sealant to fully coat the panels as you put them together. Maybe getting it pre-built would have been a better option for you?
I dont know yet if it will help, but I painted my sealant with rustoleum gray paint (in a can) using a small brush. I figured it would flow in to any cracks and seal anything that the sealant did not. I also painted over each of the screws that hold the tray to the frame. Two coats actually. Maybe give this a try. I also painted some welds that looked like they could be leak candidates…time will tell.
Good luck. You’ll get passed it…just the price you pay for getting an economically priced kit plasma torch table i guess!! In general the table quality is excellent.
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That looks Beautiful, not to knock the fine finish, but im sure there is a reason why Langmuir said to apply Marine sealant Liberally to the joints and fasteners. I know its messy but at the end of the day your driving a torch thousands of degrees over the seams. Believe me I thought about the clean approach but Langmuir hasn’t steered Us Wrong yet. Happy cutting.
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Looks better, but as you say…it wont look good for long!
I was the first one with a XR up and running, so been about a year now and still have had 0 leaks. Do you have pics of where your table is leaking? Did you cut any materials with water not in the table at anytime?
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What material are you cutting the 3/8" holes in? We had a problem with cutting holes with our OG table but after doing some tweaking they come out pretty damned true on most materials thinner than 1/8" and then it’s a taper problem (which I think we’ll be able to fix when we get the new table being a lot closer to the compressor/dryer). Make sure you are calculating kerf width appropriately and your lead in/out are adjusted accordingly.
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I’ve been playing with a few different steels. 16 ga came out ok, still have to drill it or ream to size. The product I really need the precision on is .25 “ stainless. Resolved the lead in lead out issues but as you said the taper is the issue. Once the steel is work hardened it’s near impossible without annealing it to get to proper size. Once I get the water situation fixed I plan to keep trying. My hope was the water table would keep it from hardening but unfortunately it won’t
I cut two strips of aluminum 1/8 ×1/2×table width.
Put water table on plasma table placed the strip on inside of water table clamped with vise grips marked the strip through the holes with felt marker unclamped and drilled the holes in strip,placed that strip on the one i just drilled marked and drilled it.
Now i usef RTF
RTV on both sides of the water table " light" put together with the strips i just made( prvided bolts we’re just long enough) tighteded evenly let set up one day.it now will never leak!!
Hope this helps you.
Ernie
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I had a few leaks on mine at the drain holes. I ended up draining it and putting two more holes in the middle pans. Ran 1” bulkhead fittings and pex underneath to run everything out the wall of my shop with a ball valve that was easy to get too. Hope this may help!
Throw the silicone in the trash…instead if you think you may take it apart some day then use Marine Sealant 4200 in all seams.
Use 5200 if you never plan to disassemble it…at least without a crowbar, sledge hammer, etc…
But it will never leak if you use those sealants…especially the 5200…lol…
Needless to say I have a lot of marine experience.
Good luck.
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Maybe putting in some food dye to trace the leak
The XR water tables ship with marine sealant, not silicone. Forms a very strong bond as you say.
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I applied said sealant again, along every seam and up to the top of the table. Filled it and it leaks again. Trying one more time and will report back tomorrow. I need to find someone to hold air gun underneath to look for bubbles. Can’t really do it with one person
Here is the biggest mistake i see people make when using silicone sealant. they feel like they need to spread the sealant with their finger or other object. This is a very common and poorly conceived idea. Sealant should be applied as a single bead which is extruded forcibly into the flange face of the part intended to seal ( on one side only). When the parts are assembled the sealant will be squeezed to the edges just fine by the clamping of the 2 flanges together. This “No Touch” method will prevent air from being trapped between the parts and causing a potential leak area due to sealant being displaced by air.
If the surface is properly prepared (cleaned with alcohol or acetone) and the correct method of applying sealant is used there should be no leaks unless there are holes in the welded joints. Those can be filled with sealant also.
As far as the hole quality, it helps to realize that computers get really busy when sending commands to make a hole because of the directions changes are many and sudden. Its hard for the computer and the drivers to keep up with one another. so it REALLY helps to slow way down.
I do this in the post processing in fusion 360 under the “FEED OPTIMIZATION” option. When you click the feed optimization box a sub menu opens where you can adjust the parameters but the defaults have served me very well. Fusion 360 does a very good job compensating the travel path to maintain proper hole size even though its traveling much slower. Most of my cuts are in thin aluminum and hole dimensions are critical to my application.
Hope that helps.
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Have you thought about welding them together?
Can you see where it leaks from? Is it leaking from one of the welds that secures the stiffeners? We’ve see some water tables have pinholes where the weld was burned in a bit too hot.