[millman52]

My system probably takes about a second to normalize when transitioning from High PH to Low cut flame. It actually looks to go rich or carburizing during the transition. I was afraid it would go the other way or lean & possibly snuff the flame all together. All in all it works quite well to go rich in the transition. after all it has just preheated & is walking away from a very hot almost molten area around the pierce. It5 is good to get the "CUT" flame as cool as possible as fast as possible to prevent top edge rounding.

I cut 1" A36 all day yesterday & was supposed to again today but my radial drill press operator called in a sick day. So I drilled for & tapped 1 1/4" - 7 NC holes just about all day.

[millman52]

My preheat regs are set to 11 PSI on the propane & 30 PSI on OX for 1" & use 40 seconds of PH time. I couldn't tell you what it is on the low side as it goes through flow tubes & I don't have gauges downline but it's going to be pretty low pressure & the flame will be barely oxidized. I am using standard type tips because lots of the product I manufacture, the kerf lines are visible & I want them as straight & clean as possible, so I sacrifice some speed.

I have .1 second of pierce dealy & and lead in speed of 7 IPM. then up to normal cut speed. My pierce Ox goes from Low to Hi in about 2.5-3 seconds.

[tinman13]

Millman, I don't remember what cam software you use? Is it Sheet-cam or something else.
I am anxiously waiting for a report on the dome loaded reg. too. This is something I would like to do in the near future......... Along with an angle pierce head and, hell a whole new machine, bigger and faster!

Steve

[WSS]

Steve, The dome loaded is good. It works perfect. The reg I am using is a SMC brand that dumps as you drop, so no need to unload or have flow to adjust on the air side of the dome. The reg responds real time to it. I do think I need to raise my top end psi on my compressor. The MTHN (hi speed) tips I use call for 85-95 psi. If I am die grinding or something I may drop to low to hold the dome pressure up. I have it set to start at 100psi which is a bit close I think.

Neil, If you delay .1 seconds, then you are moving during the pierce? I would normally use the lead in as the ramp, but am thinking of what you mentioned about being at hi psi and rolling the edge. My lead would have to be an inch or two long to equalize in time for the cut. Am I off base here? I can see lots of learning curves ahead!!

WSS

[WSS]

Lots to think about!

Neil, I was going by The chart specs for the tip on the lo side, It is about 5psi lp and 35psi oxy. I could just see the blue cone under the tip. I will try lower and see what it looks like. I was up to 60 psi oxy and 12psi lp for the hi side to play with. It was too much though. Really could not get a stable cone that high. Firing it off the plate, you could see a nice narrow and straight kerf stream with the valves cut way back. I will have to switch it all around and try lo psi and more open valves to balance.

This is pretty exciting. I even cleaned up and flipped slats in anticipation of the new feature. Just in time for spring. LOL

WSS

[millman52]

Steve I am using Sheetcam (Original Version) I have Sheetcam TNG Just haven't switched to it

I noticed the new slat surface in your previous pics.

On 1" I am moving/ramping down during the pierce. With 7 IPM on the lead in I rarely reach the edge of the part I am cutting before the pierce goes hi. I most commonly use about .7" lead in where space permits but can get by with .4 with a little chipping of the slag puddle after the torch moves off. Where space permits (torch moving away from the pierce point) I sometimes even grind off the pierce crap on top of the plate to insure a good finish once the torch comes back around to the start point. Lots of stuff I cut are pretty big parts & may be as much as 15 20 Min.

Also I hadn't mentioned Low pierce ox settings. On 1" & the standard tips, I come on at about 25# pressure & goes up to only 45# For thinner material 3/8, 1/2, 5/8 come on around 12-15 up to about 35-40 My initial PH settings for this thinner material is 6# Propane & 19-20# OX & from 13-21 seconds of PH time depending on thickness, mill scale, surface rust etc.

I'll also note that the above PH times are pretty much for cold plate. If I am cutting parts that the subsequent pierce points are close to the previous part (somewhat preheated plate) I'll set the initial PH time a few to several seconds less, depending on plate thickness. The only down side there is that 1st. pierce. There I'll usually handle that like a restart rather than "begin program". In other words Move to 1st pierce point & fire the torch while it is up from the plate & count off a few seconds mentally Then hit start. For example Cold 1" takes about 40-45 seconds PH. If the second & subsequent pierce(s) is right next to the 1 st. part I only need about 1/2 or less PH time (15-20 seconds)

I'm sure you have used Oxy fuel enough to know many or all these variables ends up still not being an exact science. LOL, Just like a Doctor "It's the practice of burning metal"

I'll have to change the feed rate especially on 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" as much as 2-3 IPM depending on what kind of state of degrade the surface of the batch of sheet plate is in.

[tinman13]

Neil, If you don't mind me asking...... "With 7 IPM on the lead in"...
How or where in Sheet-cam do you set that?
Or are you referring to "plunge rate" ?

Thanks, Steve

[millman52]

Neil, If you don't mind me asking...... "With 7 IPM on the lead in"...
How or where in Sheet-cam do you set that?
Or are you referring to "plunge rate" ?

Thanks, Steve

You are correct It's the plunge rate Mach defaults your X-Y movement to the same speed. So once the plunge depth is reached X & Y Will automatically go up to that setting whether or not The full lead in length has been reached.

[tinman13]

Hmmm...... I understood it to be Z axis speed.
None the less I think we're on the same page!
I typically set the Z plunge rate close to the same as feed speed and have close to a 45* lead in. Seems to work quite well "here".
I would like to have an option for lead in speed as well as a separate setting for preheat, pierce and cut height.
I may suggest that to Les and see what he thinks about it!

Steve

[scrambled]

You all are going to make me get into the action as well!!

As soon as I get the new gearboxes working better, I think this will be my next project.

I am hoping everyone is keeping a parts list so mine will be EASY!

Looking good everyone


Steve

[millman52]

Hmmm...... I understood it to be Z axis speed.
None the less I think we're on the same page!
I typically set the Z plunge rate close to the same as feed speed and have close to a 45* lead in. Seems to work quite well "here".
I would like to have an option for lead in speed as well as a separate setting for preheat, pierce and cut height.
I may suggest that to Les and see what he thinks about it!

Steve

The plunge rate is the Z speed, but it also takes over the X & Y till the cut height is achieved. In other words If you set the plunge to 7 IPM X & Y automatically becomes 7 IPM till the plunge reaches the pre set cut height.


I use the came plunge speed as the cut speed on everything under 1"...... 1" & above I use a slower plunge rate just because it slows down everything else & tends to direct the volconao effect behind the tip rather than straight up into it.

On thin material (1/4") I tend to go the other way Plunge rate of 30 IPM cut speed of 22. I do this to get away from the red hot PH area as soon as possible trying to avoid slag on the bottom in that area or even worse bonding back together.

[WSS]

You all are going to make me get into the action as well!!

As soon as I get the new gearboxes working better, I think this will be my next project.

I am hoping everyone is keeping a parts list so mine will be EASY!

Looking good everyone


Steve

Found these. Popped up in a saved search...

Victor SR 700 ME Series Line Manifold Regulator Unused - eBay (item 350439789977 end time Mar-16-11 01:54:19 PDT)

Looks like a good price. These are the hi flow, heavy duty line regs. I believe you can use them for both oxy and fuel. The line inlet looks big, maybe 1/2"? I used the L250 regs (260 for fuel). If you use a dome loaded 700, then you can get away with the lower volume regs (250/260) for the preheat lines. The cut line takes quite a bit of flow. You would need four of them, maybe six if you added a auxillary pair for hand cutting or remote track cutting.

Tomorrow I do some real world testing. I have some 1.5" to play with and some 1" to do. I will post some details when finished. Fingers crossed....

Tommy

[WSS]

Well, I did do some oxy cutting with the new console. I had a hot manganese order to do early. So I did not get started until 2pm. I managed to cut four full parts and some test squares in 1.5" plate. I must say, with three extra regs it seems like I need to know four times the info to make them work. Maybe 8 times. First obvious problem that showed up was the actual pierce. Not sure what I did here, but the 1.5" pierced great, nice crater (large though) pierced and then started the move (no ramp/plunge). The crater was even all around and no splatter. Then on 1" I started the ramp/plunge. started to move at 2.5 seconds and was up to (or down to really) cut speed and pressures after another 3 seconds. Could not get a good pierce. larger than normal spray and farther. Three ended in estops they were so bad.

The base settings were hi-50oxy 10lp and lo-35oxy and 5lp w/90cut oxy. Another thing I noticed was I could not keep a cut over 15ipm, usually I could hold 18 easy and 20 when the day is long and the sheet is warm. I must be starving something somewhere. I do have a hiflow FBA on the main oxy reg going to the manifold, this has always been there but now it is also being pulled from by the lo oxy (hi oxy while preheating too).

Any thoughts?

Neil, I seem to remember you mentioning the settings were much different than you expected. My turn!

Tommy

[millman52]

Well, I did do some oxy cutting with the new console. I had a hot manganese order to do early. So I did not get started until 2pm. I managed to cut four full parts and some test squares in 1.5" plate. I must say, with three extra regs it seems like I need to know four times the info to make them work. Maybe 8 times. First obvious problem that showed up was the actual pierce. Not sure what I did here, but the 1.5" pierced great, nice crater (large though) pierced and then started the move (no ramp/plunge). The crater was even all around and no splatter. Then on 1" I started the ramp/plunge. started to move at 2.5 seconds and was up to (or down to really) cut speed and pressures after another 3 seconds. Could not get a good pierce. larger than normal spray and farther. Three ended in estops they were so bad.

The base settings were hi-50oxy 10lp and lo-35oxy and 5lp w/90cut oxy. Another thing I noticed was I could not keep a cut over 15ipm, usually I could hold 18 easy and 20 when the day is long and the sheet is warm. I must be starving something somewhere. I do have a hiflow FBA on the main oxy reg going to the manifold, this has always been there but now it is also being pulled from by the lo oxy (hi oxy while preheating too).

Any thoughts?

Neil, I seem to remember you mentioning the settings were much different than you expected. My turn!

Tommy

It would be hard to relate much about my system to yours as they work totally different.

I don't think the orifice size in my solenoid valves are quite big enough to run high speed/high pressure tips. Everything seems to work fine with regular tips however.

For preheat on 1" A 36 I have tank regulator settings of 30 Ox & 11 Propane. My pierce Ox Reg is set to 50#. Keep in mind this is at the tanks before 10 ft or so of hose to the control cabinet & 50' of hose after to the torch (3 line of course). I have no way of knowing what that pressure drops to after going through my flow tubes. I couldn't tell you what CFH the flow is either because I have no idea what gas(s) the flow tubes were designed for. They are merely a means to choke it down & regulate the "cut" flame. A very little bit of trial & error has told me what #'s on the flow tubes to use for those settings.

My low setting for 1" pierce is 25# then goes to 50# after a delay of about 2-3 seconds. I only lift the torch to .8" after a PH time of 45 sec. for pierce to begin. I have virtually no pause (.1 sec.) yes that's 1 tenth, after pierce begins, then immediately begin plunge & lead in at 6-7 IPM. I'll be pierced through before the torch moves 1/4". Sometime real close to this point the cut pressure switches to hi.

I was using a "0" tip & cutting at 13 IPM. I can move up to a "1" tip & cut 14-15 IPM but begin to lose nice smooth kerf lines. Still very acceptable but will be more pronounced & edge will begin to ever so slightly cup. Oxweld torch with American torch tip "Multi Use Tips" Size comprable to Victor"

Also this is what works for room temperature to cold plate with pierce points a few inches apart. If I am running a program that has many pierces & they are close to something fresh cut I can drop that PH time to 15-20 seconds. In other words as soon as the PH spot on the plate begins to send out sparkles.

Every time I try to lift the torch very high for pierce I get a huge crater & don't get a nice clean pierce without a huge volcano effect..

Below are some pictures of 1" I just finished minutes ago.

[millman52]

Tommy,

How are you getting along with your gas console? Haven't seen an update in a while.

I found a huge learning curve with mine. I still try new things from time to time. Yours works much different than mine & should be more adjustable. Not sure that's a good thing on learnig to use, but should be able to do more with it after some hours are spent with it.

[WSS]

Neil,
It is working better and better. It probably has a good 50hrs on it now. I learned that I need to start moving as soon as the pierce starts. I was waiting until it popped thru but would get lots of blowback after the pierce and as soon as travel started, I think it was because the pierce crater got in front of the cut and the flame had to jump it. It was hard to tell but that is my best guess.

Also found some electrical trouble! It started slow but seemed to get worse as the system settled in. What was happening was the extra solenoids I added were spiking voltage when they dropped out. One or two were not noticed so much but the extra (now seven) solenoids started to knock out things like VGA cables and serial port adaptors. Leon Drake from DT nailed it right away, luckily he has lots of CNC oxy/fuel experience. I had to get a bunch of "RC networks"/"voltage snubbers" and install them across the L1 & L2 on each solenoid. The parts were only a couple of bucks each so it was an easy fix. They absorb the spikes put out by the solenoids pretty good, I have not knocked out any cables or lost com since installing.

It is hard to imagine cutting without it. I can PH 1" in 25 seconds every time. If I run back over a warm section I can drop it to 15 seconds.

Tommy

[millman52]

Neil,
It is working better and better. It probably has a good 50hrs on it now. I learned that I need to start moving as soon as the pierce starts. I was waiting until it popped thru but would get lots of blowback after the pierce and as soon as travel started, I think it was because the pierce crater got in front of the cut and the flame had to jump it. It was hard to tell but that is my best guess.

Also found some electrical trouble! It started slow but seemed to get worse as the system settled in. What was happening was the extra solenoids I added were spiking voltage when they dropped out. One or two were not noticed so much but the extra (now seven) solenoids started to knock out things like VGA cables and serial port adaptors. Leon Drake from DT nailed it right away, luckily he has lots of CNC oxy/fuel experience. I had to get a bunch of "RC networks"/"voltage snubbers" and install them across the L1 & L2 on each solenoid. The parts were only a couple of bucks each so it was an easy fix. They absorb the spikes put out by the solenoids pretty good, I have not knocked out any cables or lost com since installing.

It is hard to imagine cutting without it. I can PH 1" in 25 seconds every time. If I run back over a warm section I can drop it to 15 seconds.

Tommy

Glad to hear it's working out for you. It sure is nice to be able to cut 3-4 sheets of 3/8" plate or a full sheet of 4' X 12' 1" without having to service a cutting tip.

You have my attention on the "Voltage snubber" My pierce solenoid sometimes will fault out my system when it closes. Doesn't happen often & all I have to do is hit the reset tab on the Mach screen & carry on.

Is the snubber something I can purchase on the open market? Where?

[WSS]

Neil,

I found them on ebay easy enough. I was told that I needed about double the voltage going in and 1mf to absorb the spikes. The beauty of these is they can take repeated hits with out failing.

When my setup would "spike", a couple of things could happen. Usually the monitor would shimmy or turn a shade of purple. You could keep running this way but when it would hit a serial port adaptor it would lose communication with either the X or Y servos. I would write the code line down and restart the software and go to the line again to start over.

LOT OF 3 NEW ELECTROCUBE RG 2030-6 RC NETWORK | eBay

Tommy

[WSS]

Neil, I found these. I made an offer on them before I found the others (cheaper). Leon@DT said these would work fine for 110vac solenoids. They are used, but I understand these are pretty tuff.

Lot 2 Electrocube RG2030-6-4 RC Network | eBay

Tommy

[WSS]

Anyone have any experience using Mach3 and oxy/fuel? What are the strong points? Were is it weak? Are delays on the screen or in the code? How about Z feedrates? Can the delays be overridden on the screen? Does anybody have a machine with both plasma and oxy? Any input would be welcome.

Thanks,
WSS