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.