Question about cut quality

Jonobrien78 · Post by **Jonobrien78** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 5:11 pm

Hi, I have been on this site for a little while now. Just about all of my questions have been answered with some looking around. But now I have to post my question.

Im just starting out with my new Plasma table and working the bugs out while learning a lot. Ive make several cuts and they have been looking good. But I started to expand my cutting to larger designs. On my cuts last week I started having some issues that I cant find any info out on. I am getting a Jagged cut while cutting now. Im cutting 16 guage and my cut profile is right out of the Hypertherm book. Im not sure if its an air pressure issue of a speed/amp issue. I also lost arc close to the end of the cut file not sure what that was al about. It pierced and went to move but it dove into the plate and stopped. I will post pictures for you to see. I also took a video that I posted on youtube if that helps.

Thanks in advance for looking

CNCCAJUN · Post by **CNCCAJUN** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 7:35 pm

I am curious as you are.

While I surely do not know, I would think perhaps grounding, loose screw in drive components or pressure to rack . .

I am strictly guessing . . . I watch and try to learn.

Recently I made a post about resolution and was definitely wrong . . .

lol lol lol

Steve

cindy carlisle · Post by **cindy carlisle** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 8:19 pm

That looks like backlash, somethings loose. Does it do it on a long straight line, could be electrical noise if it is doing it there too

Is your THC bouncing? If it is not set right that could be it.

Jonobrien78 · Post by **Jonobrien78** » Sat Oct 19, 2013 10:31 pm

Ok, so two people have said about the same thing. Something loose. That is a good idea. I will check everything tomorrow. I could see that after some cuts something could have backed off a bit if it wasn't correctly torqued from the get go.

Thanks guys. I will post anything that I may find

cindy carlisle wrote:That looks like backlash, somethings loose. Does it do it on a long straight line, could be electrical noise if it is doing it there too Is your THC bouncing? If it is not set right that could be it.

CNCCAJUN wrote:I am curious as you are.

While I surely do not know, I would think perhaps grounding, loose screw in drive components or pressure to rack . .

I am strictly guessing . . . I watch and try to learn.

Recently I made a post about resolution and was definitely wrong . . .

lol lol lol
Steve

Post by **jimcolt** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:40 am

Loose mechanical components can do this, but also drive tuning being too hot (acceleration rates set too high) will do this is well. Looks to be more of an issue on the North and South directions from your pictures.

Putting a pen in the torch holder and tracing the part file (at the same speed your would be cutting) will determine whether edge roughness is created by the process (plasma) or the x-y motion.

From the appearance I would put my money on a loose motor mount or loose rack and pinion mesh on one axis.

Jim Colt Hypertherm

Post by **mdwalker** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:58 am

I recently had a problem similar to this but not quite as severe on my Sampson table. Turned out that I had mistakenly changed my acceleration rate. Turned it down and problem went away.

Jonobrien78 · Post by **Jonobrien78** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:56 pm

Thanks for the reply's guys. I checked all my mounts and stuff. I didn't see anything super bad. I did have a gear that wasn't exactly square. reset all my gears just because. I have a magnetic break away for my torch. I notices that it has more play (left and right wiggle) then I think it should. I removed it and bolted my torch right to the original mount. I ran out of time to make a cut tonight. Ill make one tomorrow and get back to you.

Thanks again!

this is a pic of the magnetic breakaway torch holder

abmagrum · Post by **abmagrum** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:01 pm

I wouldn't run it to much with out the break away.
like jim said you are probably just running a little fast .
someone had the same problem in the spring. and everyone said it was from running to fast.

OkieBurner · Post by **OkieBurner** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:22 pm

Our big machine does that sometimes but not nearly as bad. It looks like the head is dragging when ours does it. I'm not sure what they did but the techs fixed it in the controller. Good luck!

Jonobrien78 · Post by **Jonobrien78** » Fri Nov 01, 2013 1:00 pm

Ok I finally got a chance to make another cut. Looks like the same thing. After I read what OkieBurner wrote I went and did one more cut. From what I can tell it looks like the head is dragging. Thanks for the heads up Okie. Now how should I go about fixing it? when cutting the volts look right, they jump around a lot tho. Do I change the cut height or is it more in the switch offset setting?

OkieBurner wrote:Our big machine does that sometimes but not nearly as bad. It looks like the head is dragging when ours does it. I'm not sure what they did but the techs fixed it in the controller. Good luck!

sodfarmer · Post by **sodfarmer** » Fri Nov 01, 2013 1:48 pm

Don't know if you have this, but CandCNC has the settings for the new Hypertherms 45-105 on their website. They tested in house. Use the link below for all your settings, its the last one on the page. Its called support files. I would start there.

http://www.candcnc.com/manuals.htm

KeeYaw · Post by **KeeYaw** » Fri Nov 01, 2013 3:09 pm

I have NO clue to what the problem is............but I think the jagged edge looks pretty darn cool for that sign!

Jonobrien78 · Post by **Jonobrien78** » Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:05 pm

Thanks sodfarmer. I have that already. Im gonna mess with it today and see if I have a setting wrong or something. I might post in there forum as well.

sodfarmer wrote:Don't know if you have this, but CandCNC has the settings for the new Hypertherms 45-105 on their website. They tested in house. Use the link below for all your settings, its the last one on the page. Its called support files. I would start there.

http://www.candcnc.com/manuals.htm

cindy carlisle · Post by **cindy carlisle** » Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:29 pm

Raise the torch

It is too low!

Leeway · Post by **Leeway** » Sun Nov 03, 2013 8:39 am

I initially had a little bit of that. This is when I was first setting up. PM45 using PM30 consumables. I had to slow things down some off the stated manual settings. I had to lower my voltages too, but did that later.
I turned off the THC first to make sure my switch offset settings and cut height were correct. Then I cut with THC off and watched what the voltages were at the correct cut height.
That is what I plugged into the profiles and it has worked fine since on cold rolled, aluminum and SS sheets. Different profiles for each type and thickness of those of course.
Everything is about 85% of the manual specs. Small holes are 65 % of the rated speeds.
That is what works fine on my machine.

Little to zero dross. I get the most on aluminum. None on SS.

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