[flyinwilly]

Occasionally I will get a black film on the inside of the swirl ring. This usually occurs at the end of our season (we are only open for the spring and summer). I suspect its because the filters in my air system are ready to be changed and also because the consumables need to be replaced again. So I just clean the swirl ring with a solvent and it seems to help.

Also, I noticed that we get more stuckies when we are running the 65A nozzles instead of the finecut. Don't know why this is but it might have something to do with air pressure. Our low pressure switch is set at 90 PSI and it's probably less at the Pmax when the compressors cycle on. I am going to raise it next season to 100 PSI and see if this helps.

Willy

[plasmamatt]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know if you were doing some type of special cleaning that I didn't know about. I typically change the swirl ring after so much use. It doesn't prevent the stuck consumables though. I have to check but I'm pretty sure my low pressure is set at 120 psi. I do notice that the stuck consumables happen right before the air compressor kicks on and it also after cutting a series of holes. If I am cutting the shape of larger parts it rarely ever happens. I think part of it might be the number of starts in a row and the torch ON time. When cutting holes the torch ON time is very short and possibly contaminates have the ability to build up more. I have two filters and then a refrigerated air dryer in line. I can't imagine I would still be getting any moisture or contaminates though.

[LeeWay]

I have the Powermax45XP now and did have the older 45. Never seen any stuck consumables. We ran smaller 30 amp consumables in the older unit and only ran it at 35 to 40 amps. On the new machine we do run it at 45 amp. We do now have refrigerated air. That had a positive outcome on everything in the shop that uses air.

[flyinwilly]

Been a while since I've posted on this thread. Table has been running for 11 years and it's still going great. Business has been way down the last two years due to Covid. Golf courses have not been ordering and the art fairs have mostly been cancelled so the metal art sales have really dropped off. In addition, sheet steel prices have quadrupled so the metal art is no longer quite as profitable.

Still using the Candcnc LCTHC, PMAX 65, Gecko 540 and Windows 7 on a old dell Optiplex PC. All are running flawlessly. Amazing that all of these low cost (except for the PMAX65) components are still running perfectly in this environment. Don't know how much longer I'll be running the table since business is down and I'm getting a little long in the tooth. This whole project has been fun and very interesting.

Have fun out there and stay safe.

Willy