Lead ins

[Wine Country]

I wanted to find out if anyone has a special method of placing lead ins on their drawings. I have had pretty good luck
in the past,but sometimes get nicks in my cut edges where the lead in was placed. I normaly do not use the quater or half
round lead ins, as it is sometimes a pain to trim them to the entity. I try to place my lead ins at corners in a drawing.
Marty

[plain ol Bill]

I let Sheetcam put the lead in's into the drawing. Then if I don't agree w/ them I can move them but ususally don't bother.

[jim]

I ran into that when I first started and found out my speed was to fast and my machine was not sq. or level .These are all very inportant.
Jim(murals in metal)

[fab-man]

I have had the same problem. Placing the lead ins at corners is the best as Marty said, I also found that making sure the torch doesn't make an abrupt direction change at the end of it's lead also really helped out. Abrupt direction changes on most machines will introduce a slow down routine until the direction change is accomplished, and slowing the torch will allow the arc to burn away more material in that area making the lead in more visible. Also as Jim said, depending on what type of drive system you have a poorly leveled or set up table can introduce gear lash which also causes this on lead ins and direction changes. The diagram kind of shows how a lead in properly placed can flow smoothly into the cut.

Fab-Man