Jim Colt - what the #$/^&, ??? HELP !!!!

[cbassjr]

Hypertherm Power max 85. Cutting at 65 amps with the correct manual settings for 1/2" plate Arclight table with thc on. Torch pierces thc seems to work for about an inch then goes down on the metal and starts to drag. Doesn't do it on anything less than 1/2 inch. Doesn't finish cutting past the pierce point and several pieces didn't cut thru the metal all the way especially on the circles. One of the pics shows a 1/2 plate next to a 10 gauge piece. On the 1/2 inch anywhere there is a curve everything goes to hell. Even the square pieces the holes are not consistent and oblong and the tops where the curves are are crazy hope you can tell me what's going on. I'm also sending pics to arclight to see why the torch thc is not keeping the torch off the metal... this is crazy as I have a ton of parts for this customer I need to cut from 1/2" plate. I had a simular problem a long time ago with metal from this supplier where the customer got this plate from. Also in talking with customer he told me he tried to drill this same plate he brought me with a drill and couldn't get the drill to drill it. Like I said I cut a piece of 1/8" I had laying around and as you can see by the side by side pic I took it cut correctly. HELP!!!!!

[CNCCAJUN]

Strictly a guess . . . "WAG"

Metal is coated with something & you are not getting a good ground . . .

Would affect an ohmic ground if this was the case.

Not sure what Arclight uses for it's THC . . .

Strictly a guess . . .

Steve

[cbassjr]

Strictly a guess . . . "WAG"

Metal is coated with something & you are not getting a good ground . . .

Would affect an ohmic ground if this was the case.

Not sure what Arclight uses for it's THC . . .

Strictly a guess . . .

Steve

I had a message from Jim last night and he indicated 65 amp should be fine but I talked with arclight and they want me.to go to 85 amp. I've followed. The 65 @map setting and you seemed the results. I'm going to go to the 85 amp tomorrow and see what happens which arclight suggested. I've folloowed the 65 amp setting an! You see what I'm up against. I've checked everything and nothing seems to help.im going to change to 85 amp tomorrow and see what. I'm think this a bad piece of steel. Customer couldn't get a drill bit to even get it to Penatrate it. I'm thinking it's a bad piece of steel. According to Jim 65 amp should have cut this at no problem. I'm really at a loss.

[mdwalker]

I cut up to 5/8" on a regular basis with a Powermax 1000 so the 65 shouldn't have any issues. I have a different brand table but I think your issue is going to be the dive rate on your height control. I'm sure Jim will explain this much better but when you cut thicker material you slow your cut rate. If the dive rate on your machine is set too fast it will cause the torch to dive in to the material. Since your cut rate is slower it is cutting the material faster than the torch is advancing causing the height control to lower the torch into the material.

[_Ogre]

have you tried with the thc off?
sounds like you have dive issues
we rarely use thc as it causes more troubles than not
though i think it's in the setup

i cut 1/2'' with pm65 all the time, i get my best cuts on 1/2'' mild steel

[jimcolt]

If the THC dives into the plate.....then of course your cut quality is going to be terrible. I suggest working with Arc Light to determine the problem (my first thought is that the arc voltage setting is too low) and get your cutting back to normal.

The THC on the Arc Light units is excellent technology and must be used on all material thicknesses for best cut quality and consumable life. I suspect the issues are just with settings. There are machines out there with eight controls that do not work well....Arc Light has one of the best.

65 amps will cut with far better quality on 1/2" than 85 amps will. Coatings on the material will not affect cut quality, however it could affect the height control if you are not getting a good work ground...the symptoms would be diving the torch into the plate (height control is trying to achieve preset arc voltage, but since there could be voltage drop between the slats and the plate...the THC dives to torch into the plate). Could also be the corner height control freeze setting (height control setting) is set incorrectly....which will cause diving when the machine slows for radiuses and corners.

Jim Colt Hypertherm

[cbassjr]

If the THC dives into the plate.....then of course your cut quality is going to be terrible. I suggest working with Arc Light to determine the problem (my first thought is that the arc voltage setting is too low) and get your cutting back to normal.

65 amps will cut with far better quality on 1/2" than 85 amps will. Coatings on the material will not affect cut quality, however it could affect the height control if you are not getting a good work ground...the symptoms would be diving the torch into the plate (height control is trying to achieve preset arc voltage, but since there could be voltage drop between the slats and the plate...the THC dives to torch into the plate).

Jim Colt Hypertherm

You were absolutely correct. Talked with Adam first and then got an updated hypertherm file from Scott. Needless to say they had several wrong settings in Sheetcam like the plunge rate and then after I put in the new Hypertherm updates luckily I called Scott before I started re cutting as I didn't know in mach 3 that when you changed the voltage setting you had to then click the update DHTC icon or it defalted the voltage back to 49 even though the voltage said what I imputed. Anyway thanks I kinda suspected it was something on their side. I finally started cutting holes and circles and learned a couple of new tricks. Thanks for the reply.