[curlyweld]

I have a ez route plasma with THC for two years now,no problems other than my own. The otherday I had to cut some 24 gauge galv and decided to use my fine cut tip. I switched to the deflector (220404) and nozzle (220329) like I've done before. When I tried to make some practice cuts , it would peirce and start to cut, but the torch control would keep raising the tip until it lost arc, I then tried it on some 16 ga black and it did the same thing. The voltage on the thc stayed on its setting of about 148. I played with the setup for awhile and give up and went back to the 40 amp setup. Cut all 200 pcs no problem. Anybody have any ideas on what might of caused this? PS its a hypertherm 1000 with machine torch. THANKS,,,,,,,,,CURLY PSS after writing this I looked in my hyp manual and see I should of had my voltage set at 80, I will try this later. Still if you see anything else wrong please comment,THANKS AGAIN,,,,,,CURLY

[jimcolt]

The torch height control was doing its job.....increasing the torch arc length in an attempt to icrease the arc voltage to your setting of 148 volts. The Fine Cut consumables will not maintain an arc with a voltage/arc length that high, so the arc eventually will extinguish.

Higher arc voltage = higher torch

The most important thing for the best cut quality is for the torch to be at the best recommended physical height. Set the arc volateg so the torch runs at the correct height....and do not worry about whether or not the voltage matches what the Hyperthem manual says...those voltages are merely starting points to get your height close.

Jim Colt Hypertherm

[curlyweld]

Thanks for the quick reply, I figured it had to be something simple. While I got your attention could you tell me if it pays to turn off the plasma cutter everytime I'm not using it? How much juice does it really draw when not in use? THANKS AGAIN,,,,,,,,,CURLY

[jimcolt]

The system uses roughly 100 watts (same as a 100 watt bulb) when idling.

Jim