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General Mach Discussion / Re: Physical buttons for plasma
« on: November 20, 2016, 03:49:54 AM »
Hiya Hood, welcome to the world of plasma - a world of pain 
Apologies if i am preaching here but...
I am the opposite to you - I started in CNC plasma first then progressed to the luxury of CNC milling
Double-arcing will kill consumables fast, what torch/system are you using ?? I ask this because I wasted many hundreds of ££ and hours and hair by using poor plasma systems at the start because i thought i could save some £££ - I was wrong, I worked through three systems before i got it going, nearly made me give up and throw the towel in. The ONLY thing that saved me was splashing the cash on a Hypertherm 30XP which was later upgrade to a Hypertherm 45 - once you go Hypertherm you never go back Hypertherm torches do not double arc, at least i have never managed it.
Next is air supply - it must be dry, totally dry and oil free, I have a little refrigerated drier as well as the usual water traps in line.
Next is THC - the torch needs to find initial pierce height repeatably and accurately, then it must drop to cut height rapidly and accurately when the Arc-Ok signal is seen by the controller.
I won't mention motion as your table has servos so should be better than my stepper one.
Don't bother using the "book specs" for cut speed or voltage, just use pierce height and cut height, the rest is all measured on your table, let us know and i'll explain how its done if you want.
Once that lot is sorted out, the fun starts - plasma is never a cut and run system it seems - I still get bad days when it refuses to cut or blows a tip, but these days are between many days of good running now so i don't mind so much.
Apologies if i am preaching here but...
I am the opposite to you - I started in CNC plasma first then progressed to the luxury of CNC milling
Double-arcing will kill consumables fast, what torch/system are you using ?? I ask this because I wasted many hundreds of ££ and hours and hair by using poor plasma systems at the start because i thought i could save some £££ - I was wrong, I worked through three systems before i got it going, nearly made me give up and throw the towel in. The ONLY thing that saved me was splashing the cash on a Hypertherm 30XP which was later upgrade to a Hypertherm 45 - once you go Hypertherm you never go back
Hypertherm torches do not double arc, at least i have never managed it.Next is air supply - it must be dry, totally dry and oil free, I have a little refrigerated drier as well as the usual water traps in line.
Next is THC - the torch needs to find initial pierce height repeatably and accurately, then it must drop to cut height rapidly and accurately when the Arc-Ok signal is seen by the controller.
I won't mention motion as your table has servos so should be better than my stepper one.
Don't bother using the "book specs" for cut speed or voltage, just use pierce height and cut height, the rest is all measured on your table, let us know and i'll explain how its done if you want.
Once that lot is sorted out, the fun starts - plasma is never a cut and run system it seems - I still get bad days when it refuses to cut or blows a tip, but these days are between many days of good running now so i don't mind so much.