Cable Management Question

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Ironken
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Cable Management Question

Post by Ironken »

I am tired of looking at work lead and data cables strung all over, intricately placed as not to contact each other and no coiling of the work lead.

My question is....if I laid the work lead out in long passes touching itself or even zip tied together, could this cause any issues? How about coiling up data cables?

I want to tidy up a bit and wanted to make sure I am not creating any magnetic/electrical bad juju.
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acourtjester
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Re: Cable Management Question

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I know I will cause some here to go crazy but I have built a few table and all have be setup the same. My motor cable are 4 conductor shielded and my signal cables for switches, laser light power, and ohmic sensor wire are a CAT6 cable, all bundled in plastic spiral wrap to the table. And they continue in a short wire chain used to follow the Y axis movement on the table itself. My Hypertherm 65 work lead is the same length that came with it and hangs in loops that hold the excess, a short length that attaches to may table. I have no problems.
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Ironken
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Re: Cable Management Question

Post by Ironken »

Thanks, Jester! True story here......my last table had a 3 position solenoid for torch height. No THC, soooo I coiled my excess work lead up on the plasma cart's metal lead rack (a sheet steel half moon thingie) with no issue. Fast forward to when I first lit up my JD2....cut like a hot dam! I tidied up and swept the shop, In the process I coiled the work lead up on the METAL rack (I think you can see where I'm going with this) and called it a night.

The next day, I went to cut out a sheet of parts outta some 11g with finecuts. All the sudden, this turd was cutting horrible......I mean reeeeeeally bad. What the hell happened over night? After about half a day asking the Googler and fiddling with stuff, I ran some cuts and noticed that the torch height could be measured with a tape measure (about 5/16" visually)......hmmmmmm. A dimly lit light went off in my head! I remembered reading about coiling work leads and THC. I strung the leads out and presto.....good cuts and .060 +/- torch height when I paused the cut.

This is why I was reluctant to coil. I think if I do like you Jester, it'll be fine. I think I inadvertantly created an electromagnet with the big metal lead rack and wasted part of a day by doing so.
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SegoMan DeSigns
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Re: Cable Management Question

Post by SegoMan DeSigns »

Not sure what burn box your running but I got an extra plug for my Hyperthem 65 and made a short lead to the water pan, from that lug I run another short lead to a magnetic ground to the top of the pan. Like you I was worried about those stray electrons plus it allows me to grab the factory work lead along with the extra hand torch and take it to the field if needed.
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Ironken
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Re: Cable Management Question

Post by Ironken »

SegoMan DeSigns wrote:Not sure what burn box your running but I got an extra plug for my Hyperthem 65 and made a short lead to the water pan, from that lug I run another short lead to a magnetic ground to the top of the pan. Like you I was worried about those stray electrons plus it allows me to grab the factory work lead along with the extra hand torch and take it to the field if needed.
I did the exact same thing, I have 2 work lead assys. One for hand and one for the table. I'll just cut the one going to the table, I just hate cutting good lead.
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