Hello All,
Noobie (sort of) here and I bought a plasma table from a friend a while back.  I am just getting around to working with it as he had a bunch of issues and thats why he sold it.  I built a CNC router about 5 years ago but I am not familiar with the plasma application.
I have everything wired up and running just like it should - except - when I cycle start the G code, the torch moves before it has had a chance to pierce the metal.  How do I put a "pause" in there for a pierce delay?  It has a proma THC 150 but I am not using it (one thing at a time).  Just want to zero z and go for now...
I am using SheetCam (also have never used) so I am assuming I have to do something in the post processor before mach?

HiCon Integra motion controller 7766

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Brian

To get going for now, put a G04 P####   
That will dwell for a specified amount of time in milliseconds for the P Value.    Exp. P1500 is 1.5 seconds.

I don't have a plasma nor have I ran one before, so I don't know what the standard is for them to pierce; however, you can probably find the M Code that turns on the torch and add a dwell inside that M Code.  This way you don't have to add to your g code, the controller can handle it. 
Furthermore, you can add a DRO to the screen and call it "Pierce Time" and let the macro read what you put into that DRO. Set the DRO up as a System Parameter and just have the M Code look at the #VARS you put in the DRO.

Hey Chad,
Thank you for replying to my post.  I will definitely give that a go.  Ive been trying to get used to SheetCam which is supposed to put a pierce delay in the code but it isn't doing it for me.  If I use my buddy's GCode file that was on the computer (that he generated with the same SheetCam on the same computer), the delay works fine (dwell) so I believe that I just have something "off" in Mach4. 
It is easy enough to edit the code before sending to the machine so I will do the code edit for now like you said - thank you!  I'm scratching my head though as to why Mach isn't doing it on the same computer, LOL.