PowerMax 45 / CandCNC THC question
I've bought a PowerMax 45, a gantry kit from Precision Plasma and BladeRunner electronics from CandCNC.
I've built the table. Everything is fine.
I've installed the motors and software. I've tuned the motors. It runs around the table like it should and an inch of movement is an inch of movement.
Everything appears to be hunky-doory in that respect.
I've hooked up the THC stuff to the plasma cutter. All the little test buttons on the different cards seem to function like the manuals say they should (green lights are green, test lights flash, seems to read the voltage while cutting, etc.)
The table has a ground rod 8 feet into the ground and hooked to the table leg.
The plasma cutter has a motor guard filter on it.
The consumables are as new as the plasma cutter is. They are just out of the box.
I lowered the THC Rate and got the thing to stop bouncing like a chihuahua on crack.
A couple of things, though. One thing I can't keep it from doing is losing it's arc during a cut. The torch fires, the THC delays for a second like the settings tell it to, the torch rises to the height, the THC keeps it following the surface of the metal, but the torch cuts out intermittently as it is cutting. It acts like I turned the torch off for a half a second and turned it back on. Obviously, there's this half inch to 1 inch gap in the cut now.
I'm not real sure what to do with that. The air compressor is plenty big enough. The air is going through several dryers right before it goes in the unit. The consumables are the ones the book told me to use.
I just don't know what to do with that. All the other issues I feel confident are just me not dialing the right settings in. The cuts are a little hot and a little beveled, it's a little slaggy, but nothing I'm sure I can't work out, but why it stalls or cuts out like that... I have no idea.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Re: PowerMax 45 / CandCNC THC question
I'm gonna try and talk you down off the ledge. Take a deep breath... for what it's worth, I had many moments like yours. These are the Times that separate the men from the boys. Wait until you've calmed down and thinking rationally again, before you go back to it.
Forget about the scriber for now, concentrate on the plasma end of things. If I were you, I would start back from the beginning of the candcnc manual. Make sure that your pc is dedicated to your table. And set it up as per manual. Which means uninstalling everything and starting over. No antivirus, nno automatic updates etc... You should only have mach 3 running on it. Right down your motor tuning if you have those. Anything else running in the background can cause sporadic activity like that which you described. Run all the tests for your electronics setup. If everything checks out. Setup sheetcam on another pc. It's important to learn sheetcam and make sure that you are running the correct post. If nothing else, this will be an exercise in getting to know your setup better. A lot of people give up on these things, don't be that guy! It is doable, take it from a guy that had his share of troubles.
Marcel
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