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Charlene
01-27-2012, 01:45 AM
Very excited to report that the first box has shipped and should be here next week. The floor in the new shop went down yesterday. Now to figure out what we still need to build the table. Here we go!:toothy4:

Charlene

wickedinhere
01-27-2012, 02:42 AM
Cant wait to see it, i have a 4x4 now but i have been getting alot of request for large items that i cant cut because of size limitations. I hope to get a 5x10 ordered next week. The table is easy to build just make its all square and level and it will be all good.

jeepsr4ever
01-27-2012, 02:48 AM
Wickedinhere has already built one of the older kits. He has a good grasp of the softare interface as well. Charlene here are the 4x8 table prints and water pan prints
http://www.bulltear.com/forums/showthread.php?19135-2012-and-newer-Model-4x8-CNC-Plasma-table-prints&p=131454#post131454

Charlene
01-27-2012, 05:33 AM
Thanks! I look forward to updating you guys.

Charlene
01-28-2012, 06:05 AM
Here are a couple pics of the shop as of today. The sheathing & doors happen this week, then siding & finishing up the electrical. Almost done. :glasses2:

Charlene
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wickedinhere
01-28-2012, 08:43 AM
Looks good, now you have to fill it.

Charlene
01-28-2012, 10:48 AM
Ha! Got that covered. I am unwilling to post pics of our current garage... [-([-(:xcensoredx::protest:

wickedinhere
01-28-2012, 11:14 AM
POST em up you can do a before and after shot.

cjheap
01-28-2012, 02:35 PM
Can you send me a password to the table prints. ?

Charlene
01-28-2012, 03:06 PM
You have to send jeepsr4ever a PM and request it.:tongue4:

Charlene
01-30-2012, 06:35 AM
Alright wicked, you asked for it! Don't say that I didn't warn you...

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Charlene

wickedinhere
01-30-2012, 09:14 AM
Thats not too bad, just wait till you have plasma and grinding dust all over everything.

Charlene
01-30-2012, 12:17 PM
I can only imagine! But atleast it will be all metal working stuff. The current garage will go back to "toy" storage and a place for my car!!:hello1::thumbleft:

Charlene
02-01-2012, 08:18 AM
We are starting to gather the steal for the build and we have a question about the water table. The plans call for it to be made out of a single piece of steal but we can't find anyone around here that can handle bending something that big. What do we do??

jeepsr4ever
02-01-2012, 08:18 AM
Find someone else it shouldnt be that hard to bend.

wickedinhere
02-01-2012, 08:21 AM
I suggest using 3x3 angle iron for the sides and use a 4x8x1/8 sheet for the bottom. Here are pics of my water table.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/wickedinhere/photo101.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/wickedinhere/photo102.jpg

Charlene
02-01-2012, 09:14 AM
Thanks wicked. I was taking a look through your build and thought that was the way you went. We bought the 85, does that mean that it needs to be deeper than 3"?

wickedinhere
02-01-2012, 09:24 AM
3 inches is good for 80 amps, what thickness of metal do you plan on cutting?

Charlene
02-01-2012, 09:37 AM
Possibly all the way up to an inch but that won't be common.

wickedinhere
02-01-2012, 09:41 AM
I would go deeper if your gonna cut that thickness just to be safe.

Charlene
02-07-2012, 03:46 AM
I think that our second shipment went out yesterday. But we are waiting for confirmation from Matt with a tracking number... We hope that it is finally on its way. We are getting a bit anxious because we ordered it in early December. :hairhair3:

wickedinhere
02-07-2012, 06:46 AM
Have ya'll started building your actual table yet? I started building mine before i got the kit.

Charlene
02-07-2012, 07:54 AM
No, not yet. Glenn wants to wait until the 2nd shipment is on its way to be sure that it is coming. Still waiting for a call from Bulltear with the shipping details...

jeepsr4ever
02-07-2012, 09:15 AM
Multiple boxes inbound!

Charlene
02-07-2012, 09:26 AM
Multiple boxes inbound!

Please PM me or call me to let me know what company and the tracking info. Thanks.

jeepsr4ever
02-07-2012, 09:45 AM
UPS was one of them. Did you get ahold of the first package the trucking company called and said they couldnt get ahold of you this morning. I would love to give every customer tracking on every package but we are moving at capacity.

Charlene
02-07-2012, 10:03 AM
Has everything been shipped now? Did the last of it all go out with UPS?

Charlene
02-07-2012, 10:32 AM
UPS was one of them. Did you get ahold of the first package the trucking company called and said they couldnt get ahold of you this morning. I would love to give every customer tracking on every package but we are moving at capacity.

Matt, I sent you a PM.

jeepsr4ever
02-07-2012, 12:15 PM
Last of it was UPS, did you get your first shipment? One of the things that concerns me about not getting a nod that everything was ok is that we have had some damage in shipping recently.

Charlene
02-07-2012, 12:28 PM
I called the freight company today. It is sitting on the loading dock waiting on us.

wickedinhere
02-07-2012, 12:43 PM
Ya'll better go get it! LOL

Charlene
02-07-2012, 12:53 PM
lol! tomorrow. :blob2:

Charlene
02-08-2012, 09:14 AM
Picked up our rails at the freight company today. They look good and feel nice and smooth. Now to get the garage finished and get stuff moved in, then we can start welding the table!

wickedinhere
02-08-2012, 10:57 AM
NIce, it wont be long before your burning something.

Charlene
02-13-2012, 12:00 PM
Our electronics arrived today!! Very exciting. Everything else should ship in the next day or two! :blob2:

wickedinhere
02-15-2012, 03:18 AM
Did yall start on your table yet?

Charlene
02-15-2012, 04:25 AM
We have got some of the material and have started moving into the new shop!

Charlene
02-24-2012, 03:34 AM
Alright, I have a question? How do you know where everything goes and how to hook it all up? I don't see a thread (especially for the 2012 tables) and there is no manual... To me, it just looks like a very complicated jigsaw puzzle. Any suggestions?

wickedinhere
02-24-2012, 04:12 AM
JUst close your eyes and guess! LOL did you see this?http://www.bulltear.com/forums/showthread.php?19154-2012-and-newer-software-setup-and-instruction-MACH

jeepsr4ever
02-24-2012, 04:41 AM
Specific instructions are coming very very soon.

wickedinhere
02-24-2012, 06:27 AM
I hope they are ready before i get mine in.LOL

Charlene
02-24-2012, 10:29 AM
Yeah, thanks Wicked. I did see that but I was looking for the gantry instructions. I will wait for Matt. Thanks guys. :computer::grouphuuug:

wickedinhere
03-03-2012, 02:19 AM
YAll cuttin?

Charlene
03-05-2012, 04:40 AM
I should have a bunch of updates this week!

wickedinhere
03-05-2012, 05:20 AM
I hope so or i am gonna come up there and build it for you. LOL

Charlene
03-05-2012, 12:44 PM
lol! Well, I am sure that your knowledge would come in very handy! But, if I were you I would wait until the weather is nice. It is only 8 degrees out tonight... :sad5:

wickedinhere
03-05-2012, 01:45 PM
WOW 8 degrees thats crazy, it was 80 degrees here today.LOL

Charlene
03-05-2012, 02:09 PM
:tongue::sad5::coldcold::coldcold::coldcold:disgus t

There were a couple other emoticons that I wanted to use but I don't know you well enough yet! :angel1:

Charlene
03-12-2012, 01:47 PM
Alright, the days off are here and we are making progress!! :hello1::givemea: The cuts have been made and the table is being assembled.
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wickedinhere
03-13-2012, 12:41 AM
Lookin good!

jeepsr4ever
03-14-2012, 03:32 AM
Great!

wickedinhere
03-17-2012, 08:33 AM
I need some updates.LOL

Charlene
03-18-2012, 01:05 AM
Sorry to keep you in the dark. Yesterday we primed & painted and today we start assembling!!
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wickedinhere
03-18-2012, 04:29 AM
LOoking good!

Charlene
03-19-2012, 03:38 AM
We got the rails on yesterday and started cutting out the water table. We were very grateful for the drill guide, it made the job so much easier. And, with the help of a laser level and seemingly 20 other measuring devices, we think that the rails are square and level...:occasion5:
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wickedinhere
03-19-2012, 06:15 AM
Looking good what did you use for the leveling of each leg? I see something under the legs but cant really see.

Charlene
03-19-2012, 07:33 AM
We used the Level-It leveling feet, similar to the guy who posted a link to his build on your thread.

Today we put the gantry together! Well, we think that we got it together correctly... Matt is going to post the rest of the directions tonight, then we can check our work. :wink:
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wickedinhere
03-19-2012, 07:48 AM
I have one suggestion, make enough room so you can walk around the whole table. The parts will be hard to get to against the wall.

jeepsr4ever
03-19-2012, 07:51 AM
Wow your getting after it! Well after water tray, hooking up cable carrier, running cables to the box through the cable carrier, wiring up the limit switches and setting up software...welding in the water tray slats, welding in a drain (dont forget this one...big like 1.5" big) and macking sure your gear mesh is 100% and all the way in the rack and tight.

Starting to look like a nice machine! I am sure Glenn is starting to think about a beer soon after all the help you have given him Charlene :)

Table is to print and beautiful!:wink:

Charlene
03-19-2012, 08:25 AM
Good point Wicked, we will slide it over. Thanks Matt, we are certainly making some headway. Hopefully the hardest part is behind us!

jeepsr4ever
03-20-2012, 12:28 AM
Good point Wicked, we will slide it over. Thanks Matt, we are certainly making some headway. Hopefully the hardest part is behind us!


Yes it is!

Charlene
03-20-2012, 12:42 PM
So today we got the water table almost finished! We decided on 5 inches deep. Tomorrow we will grind down the welds and check for any weak spots.
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Charlene
03-26-2012, 01:56 PM
Okay, we are getting ready to hook up the electronics to our cutter. Would love any help that we can get!! Please & thank you.

Matt - Any luck with some pics of the new gantry setup so we can check our work. Also, when we attach the machine torch & torch mount to the breakaway plate, it will fall off with the slightest of movement...? Any suggestions? Thanks.

jeepsr4ever
03-26-2012, 02:20 PM
You may have to zip tie your machine torch lead to your cable carrier. The cable carrier will pull the torch. If you are still having trouble after trying that pm me please. In the next 2 days we will have very nice pics up. Sorry its taking so long we had some boo boos in mfg that is pooling all our guys.

jeepsr4ever
03-27-2012, 06:21 AM
Let me know how that works. It should already be in the instructions. If not we will add it. The problem is the torch lead is strong enough to overcome almost any magnetic pull.

Charlene
03-27-2012, 09:50 AM
Thanks Matt. Where do I find those instructions?

wickedinhere
03-28-2012, 11:35 AM
Hows it going?

Charlene
03-29-2012, 01:07 AM
So we have moved the air compressor into the new shop, wired it and started piping it. Wired the air dryer. We have finally got the warping out of the water table...
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Matt,
Here are the close ups of the gantry & stepper motors. Does everything look like we put it together correctly?
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jeepsr4ever
03-29-2012, 02:05 AM
You need to move your ear into the width of the gear rack on all axis. Push the gear into the gear rack while tightening the nuts on the studs that are going through the motor bracket slots. You have it right though there is no other way to install the brackets. It was designed that way with the A axis and X axis mirrored. It makes for a lot more machining and mfg but they cannot be installed wrong.

:( That aluminum gets dirty quick even by the hand touching it.

jeepsr4ever
03-29-2012, 02:06 AM
Oh and it looks like you didnt install the SAE stainless steel washers under the locknuts on the motor brackets.

jeepsr4ever
03-29-2012, 02:08 AM
Your first picture is right and there is a overload bracket available for routing. The reason it doesnt sit completely flush is so the frame builder has the ability to weld the frame within tolerances. We allow as little as 3/8" of the aluminum hanging on top the gantry side pieces and up to .700" but never over .750 which is the thickness of the sideplates so the aluminum doesnt hang over the sideplates and if that were to happen the overload routing bracket wouldnt fit right.

wickedinhere
03-29-2012, 03:36 AM
Looking good. I also need to get a refer air dryer.

Charlene
03-29-2012, 07:30 AM
Oh and it looks like you didnt install the SAE stainless steel washers under the locknuts on the motor brackets.

The milling on the motor brackets was not enough for the washer to fit on one of the bolts for the X & A motors. Any suggestions?

jeepsr4ever
03-29-2012, 07:46 AM
Yes it is when the bracket is pushed up but when its hanging the washer hits.

Charlene
03-29-2012, 01:04 PM
Thanks Matt. I got the washers on! Now, as far as getting the gear on the Y axis to line up, I can't tighten the nuts to cause it to move down. There seems to be plenty of room on the gear shaft to play with so can I loosen the set screw and move the gear down into place?

jeepsr4ever
03-29-2012, 01:35 PM
Absolutely you need to loosen the set screws and tighten them to give the gear engagement. You dont need 100% exactly these would perform at half engagement.

jeepsr4ever
03-30-2012, 05:33 AM
Charlene did you get the gears down to the gear rack ok?

Charlene
03-30-2012, 07:54 AM
Yes, thank you. They line up perfectly now.

tlspeed1
04-02-2012, 07:08 AM
Charlene....where do you plan on mounting the control box?

Charlene
04-02-2012, 07:23 AM
We are thinking about either putting it on the computer cart or the wall. It is a little unnerving to mount this very important piece of electronics on the table where water can get on it... Nothing definitive yet.

wickedinhere
04-02-2012, 08:59 AM
I bolted mine to the table and built a splash guard so water wont get on it.

jeepsr4ever
04-02-2012, 10:02 AM
We mount control boxes under the table by bolting some angle aluminum to the bottom of the frame. I will put up some pictures with the next update.

tlspeed1
04-02-2012, 11:37 AM
We are thinking about either putting it on the computer cart or the wall. It is a little unnerving to mount this very important piece of electronics on the table where water can get on it... Nothing definitive yet.

That was my concern too!

i think it would be cleaner for wiring being under the table, but dont want it to get wet.

Charlene
04-02-2012, 02:06 PM
We mount control boxes under the table by bolting some angle aluminum to the bottom of the frame. I will put up some pictures with the next update.

Thanks Matt. I am looking forward to the next update. Also, do you have some input on my question about the cable carriers? (I sent you a PM or maybe it was an email.)

jeepsr4ever
04-03-2012, 11:55 AM
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/bulltear/cablecar.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/bulltear/cablecar1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/bulltear/cablecar2.jpg

Charlene
04-03-2012, 02:03 PM
Thanks for pics Matt. They are very helpful. We are assuming that we need to attach another piece of aluminum off the y axis plate to attach that end of the carrier. Is this correct?

jeepsr4ever
04-06-2012, 04:51 AM
You can do it anyway you want these are just suggestions.

Charlene
04-06-2012, 10:26 AM
Thanks Matt. I will have lots of update photos tomorrow! Very exciting!

Charlene
04-07-2012, 01:59 PM
Alright, we have finished the slats, made & attached the brackets for the lower cable carrier, attached the upper carrier (will attach the upper bracket tomorrow), cut & painted the brackets to mount the plasma & electronics! Tomorrow we will be almost complete!!
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We used alum. bar for the brace and decided to go with angle to provide a path for the cable carrier.

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Our compressor & air dryer.
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wickedinhere
04-08-2012, 12:27 AM
Looking good!

Charlene
04-08-2012, 01:09 PM
Alright, this may be a stupid question but... how do you feed the torch cable through the cable carrier? We have a Hypertherm 85. The torch doesn't fit as a whole and it really doesn't look like it should be taken apart... Help!

jeepsr4ever
04-08-2012, 01:53 PM
There are clips on the side take a flat head screwdriver and twist in the slot..this will unclip the little clips. On the metal brackets take the plastic cable chain out from the bracket to feed the rest of your torch lead then reattech the metal bracket. On the A axis feed the motor wires through the center of the rail support. There is a large tilted 90 degree hole that is large enough for the wire with the plug.

Charlene
04-09-2012, 04:27 AM
Perfect, thanks again! I will post a few more pics later today.

Charlene
04-10-2012, 01:16 PM
Here are a couple more pics.

Who knew?!?! They pop open...
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We decided to go with a shelf under the table for the plasma and we hung the CNC. We will see how well this works.
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Just a general pic of the table, gantry w/ torch, cable carrier w/cable, etc.
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Glenn will be in training tomorrow at his real job and then doubling back to go in at midnight... Yuck!:shock: So we will work on this again on Thursday.

wickedinhere
04-11-2012, 01:17 AM
Yall gettin it done! lol I am glad i will have your build to look at when i do mine so i dont have to scratch my head so much.

Charlene
04-14-2012, 05:34 AM
HELP!! Getting ready to make our first cut but when I hit Reference Y, the Y axis traveled all the way to the right and off the rack and kept spinning until I pressed Stop. Then I hit Reference X and only the A stepper motor engaged... X & A are slaved... Very FRUSTRATED!!!

wickedinhere
04-14-2012, 05:50 AM
Move it with the arrow keys on the keyboard dont hit reference. Did you slave them in the motor config in mach3?

Charlene
04-14-2012, 06:04 AM
Yes I did. So, the reference button is only for people with limit switches on x & y? Next question: when I did just jog to the corner and zero them, the z axis shows in the positive when I move it up & away but the y axis shows negative movement when it travels away from the corner... What does this mean?

jeepsr4ever
04-14-2012, 07:10 AM
HELP!! Getting ready to make our first cut but when I hit Reference Y, the Y axis traveled all the way to the right and off the rack and kept spinning until I pressed Stop. Then I hit Reference X and only the A stepper motor engaged... X & A are slaved... Very FRUSTRATED!!!

Why are you hitting ref? Why arent you hitting X home, Y home..ect?

Charlene
04-14-2012, 07:40 AM
On the Arclight videos they show that you do that to square of the gantry and take the gantry back to table home...

jeepsr4ever
04-14-2012, 09:01 AM
Your only allowed to listen to 40% of those videos. LOL

jeepsr4ever
04-14-2012, 09:04 AM
For proper Ref you need a home switch on each axis and you need to go into your ports and pins and setup A home same as X which we are using for your maglok torch breakaway. My suggestion is learn to walk before you try to fly. Stay away from those buttons for now (ref)

Charlene
04-14-2012, 09:19 AM
Alright, mistakenly thought that it was just part of the setup process. Now that my A motor traveled when my Z didn't, how can I make sure that they are square?

jeepsr4ever
04-14-2012, 09:51 AM
Re-square by using one end of the rail. The most precise way is to use a laser on the edge of the 3/4" thick sideplates and measure off the gantry rail across.

wickedinhere
04-14-2012, 11:26 AM
Did you figure out you motor problems?

Charlene
04-14-2012, 01:14 PM
Okay. Thanks Matt.

Wicked - Not yet... my taxes are a bit more urgent right now. #-o Gotta give Uncle Sam his share! :banghead: I will go back out in the morning.

Charlene
04-14-2012, 02:11 PM
Why are you hitting ref? Why arent you hitting X home, Y home..ect?

Do you mean the buttons that zero out the axis's? Also, does it matter that when I have zero-ed them out and move the gantry up the table the x axis shows positive numbers but the y axis shows negative numbers? Shouldn't they be both positive?...

jeepsr4ever
04-15-2012, 01:10 AM
They are set to a co-ordinate system...just like your CAD. If you read the Mach 3 manual you can change the direction of Y simply by changing the "DIR low active" (It can be recheck or red X'ed in the ports and pins, motor outputs). You can change X as well but you better make sure the A axis has a different rotation direction (DIR low active) or you will bind. You can also change your keyboard keys that move your gantry by going to config/hotkeys and hitting the buton for the axis and then pressing a keyboard key. Before you do any of this consider that your zero in X and Y is not a home position it is only for cutting your plate and you will move in and out of the Y negative and positive direction. This movement is forced by how you import the drawing into Sheetcam and how its processed. Its simple once you got it but you may loose a few hairs trying to overthink it.

Charlene
04-16-2012, 11:52 AM
Alright, the keyboard keys are set, the axis' are hooked up & running, we made adjustments to the torch plate (added bolts so that we could index it & not have to ziptie the torch because it is too heavy; added a channel in the top torch mount bracket for the gear rack on the machine torch),
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and tried our first cut!
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Had trouble with the cut due to the THC. Matt suggested a couple changes: first, change the pierce time for 5/8th; then, when that didn't work, he said to make some changes inside the DTHC box & in the candCNC box. This part was a little complicated. We needed to change tiny little switches so they match. This turned out to be not as simple as I had hoped. The DTHC box wasn't bad but the switches are not marked in the cnCNC box...
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Matt, I need your help with this part. The pins are not marked in the cnCNC box and the manual doesn't show that either. Can you just show me a diagram of how these should be configured for 50? The DTHC was set for 7. Thanks.

jeepsr4ever
04-16-2012, 12:53 PM
They sure are on the bottom you will see a jumper plug and different numbers. It should be set for 50 so if you were set for 7 in the plasma set the plasma to 50 and you should be good to go as per the instructional.

Charlene
04-16-2012, 03:38 PM
I will look again Matt. To be sure that I am looking at the right thing, are they the pins in the pic that I just added to my previous post? They look the same as the pins in the DTHC box but there are more pins?

jeepsr4ever
04-16-2012, 11:21 PM
Charlene your looking in the wrong spot. The little black box is where the jumpers are for the THC. The smallish black box has 4 screws on the back, take the screws out and verify. If you set your CPC card to 50-1 your PWM box (little black box) should be set from the factory to 50-1. Also check here.
http://www.bulltear.com/forums/showthread.php?19199-Hypertherm-45-65-85-users-check-in-here-please

jeepsr4ever
04-17-2012, 01:27 AM
Charlene it is possible that the factory did not set it to 50-1 here is the pinout on the bottom of a PWM box

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/bulltear/pwmpinout2.jpg

Charlene
04-17-2012, 05:56 AM
Thanks Matt, I probably wasn't clear. I had already already found the pins in the black box but I had thought that the other place I needed to check was in the candCNC box. I now understand that it is in the Hypertherm. I will fix that today! Thanks.

Charlene
04-20-2012, 12:11 PM
Alright, here are the latest questions/problem:

1. When I load the g-code in Mach, after running the post processor in Sheetcam, it only loads part of the path. It doesn't seem to matter how many layers there are... What might I be missing?

2. Where is a good place for me to find all of the possible settings for my Hypertherm 85 for different metal thicknesses? I know that the manual has them but it doesn't seem to give me all of the settings that I need to enter in Sheetcam/Mach... especially the amp settings that I have to set on the Hypertherm.

3. Lastly, how do I know when to use the different consumables?

I hope that these questions are not so easy that I should have figured them out myself! :hairhair8:

wickedinhere
04-20-2012, 12:43 PM
THe book should have the amp settings in it mine does but i have the pm45. Did you click operation and select which layer in sheetcam before clicking post processor? i assume you set up a plasma tool for cutting.

Charlene
04-20-2012, 01:05 PM
I guess I am just overthinking the amps. Maybe once I have cut a bunch, I will stop second-guessing everything...! Yes, I have selected the layer(s) before the post processor & I did set up the plasma tool (I assume it is correct...)...

jeepsr4ever
04-20-2012, 01:08 PM
If your only loading PART of your program into Mach 3 you most likely didnt load your sheetcam liscense or your mach 3 liscense in.

Charlene
04-20-2012, 01:11 PM
Hi Matt,

You helped me load the license so that it would load more than 150 lines of code.

Charlene
04-20-2012, 01:39 PM
But I think you helped me only with the Sheetcam license. How can I check to see if I loaded the Mach license correctly?

jeepsr4ever
04-20-2012, 01:59 PM
You need to lacate the file Mach1lic.dat and drag and drop it into C:mach3 directory then restart Mach 3.

Charlene
04-20-2012, 02:27 PM
I just did that and it still says Demo Version in the About Mach3 page...

wickedinhere
04-20-2012, 07:36 PM
If i remember correctly I had to rename my mach 3 license to leave off the .dat for it to work.

jeepsr4ever
04-20-2012, 10:47 PM
Yes another customer said he had to rename the liscesne file to get rid of everything after .dat then it somehow did an auto change. We have been sending a few liscenses already changed. I think its a quirk with Mach 3 right now.

Charlene
04-21-2012, 03:03 AM
Alright! That seemed to do the trick. Now, I had a couple issues during the cut. Now Matt, I will say it before you do, "I should learn to walk before I run!" But, I wanted my first cut to be something I would want... Okay, the couple problems I had probably stemmed from the same thing. I think that the water caused the the arc to go out, which stopped the program where it was. There didn't seem to be any errors in Mach and everything was still showing as being on. So, I clicked Torch Off then Torch On and it started running again. Now I think that that caused my second problem, which is that it missed part of the cut, so things didn't fall out that should have. I think when I hit the Torch On/Off button it probably missed the lines of code... Also, at the biginning of some of the internal cuts, there are round pierce points. Does this mean that the pierce delay is set too long? *And I sit here typing this, the torch periodically blasts air... Why??

Matt, I am going to send you a couple videos because I can't seem to manage the youtube stuff right now. Sorry they are so long! Feel free to fast forward! Let me know what you think.

But I will attach a pic of the cut. It is a little hard to hold up and take the pic but I think that you will get the idea!

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wickedinhere
04-21-2012, 03:25 AM
THe best thing to do now is cut small stuff till you get the hang of it or your gonna waste alot of metal. I see your cuts are starting on the wrong side of the metal you need to look at the starting points in sheetcam. In sheetcam you can start the cut on the inside or outside of the part depends on the file. Look at the top square of the windmill it did an outside offset and should have been an inside offset.

Charlene
04-21-2012, 04:22 AM
Yeah, it's weird. Some of the cuts look right and others don't. And then it seems to have cut when it was supposed to be travelling. That was probably from me turning the torch on & off. Maybe I messed it up. I also figured out how to go to a certain line of code & start it from there. That worked pretty good so that I could finish the center. When I go back out to the shop I will check everything in Sheetcam just so I will know for sure. But, I will choose a bunch of smaller files to bring over to try to cut tonight.

However, I am very happy with the first cut and excited to keep to trying!

jeepsr4ever
04-21-2012, 04:55 AM
If you misfiring you may be loosing you + from the ground clamp. Misfiring can be from noise as well...doubtfull in your case.

Charlene
04-21-2012, 11:11 AM
It almost seems like the water from the water table is splashing up and snuffing the arc. Is this possible?

jeepsr4ever
04-21-2012, 11:12 AM
No

jeepsr4ever
04-21-2012, 11:15 AM
I am willing to bet you ran out of air pressure

Charlene
04-21-2012, 11:34 AM
Okay, I will move the clamp. We had hooked it to the bottom of the water table with a welding magnet.

jeepsr4ever
04-21-2012, 11:43 AM
Long cuts will tax your compressor hard. It is most likely that you ran out of air pressure. This is the most common arc loss and why we say learn to walk before you learn to run or fly. You will learn your system and your air compressor either through working up to them or by frusteration. Some will use a holding tank of another compressor while making long cuts with a budget air system. The powermax will absolutely fault a few times if air pressure dips.

Charlene
04-21-2012, 03:24 PM
Well, we have a 15 cfm compressor with the gauge set at 100. Does this seem adequate?

Here are some pics of my 2nd cut. I need to get better at checking the whole pic in Sheetcam before sending it to Mach. Why would Sheetcam choose only a couple of the inside cuts to pierce on the outside of the cut instead of the inside? Now I am getting a little dross. What are the settings that I should try adjusting so that I can limit this even further?

FRONT:
178

BACK:
179

CLOSE-UP:
180

wickedinhere
04-21-2012, 09:16 PM
Yep its getting better but you have to check inside/outside cuts in sheetcam. You can adjust lead in also and sometimes what your cutting is too small but sheetcam will tell you if it cant lead in. If its small details like you have on this fish it cant lead in on the real small cuts, i just remove them from the file when i see they are real small. Your compressor is plenty big, just make sure the power is on when your table is cutting. When i first started i would forget to flip the switch and run out of air half way through a cut. I would suggest grounding directly to the metal your cutting i also grind a shinny spot on the metal for good grounding.

jeepsr4ever
04-22-2012, 01:09 AM
A certain amount of dross will happen no matter what. I have seen a customer spray anti spatter on the backside of a sheet before cutting. Worked pretty good! Often to get the small cuts to play nice you have to find them and edit them or change them to another layer.

Mav68erick
04-22-2012, 03:41 AM
thats what the backside of my 1/8th looks like that Im cutting now, looks bad. But I bought a Pistol grip needle scaler from northern tools, lay the piece on some cardboard on the floor and hit it, the vibration knocks almost all of it off instantly, sometimes you need to float over certain areas that are close but it sure beats whapping things with a hammer.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200466768_200466768

Id avoid this one, I bought it, cant remember if I got the warranty but the plate that holds the needles cracked out and the needles fall out, and I dont think they have replacements like the other brand northern sells. But this is by far the best thing next to a sand blaster as well I stripped my mill with it the paint just chips off in big pieces.
The video doesnt show a very good job of it, trying to strip primer and surface rust but its truely an awesome tool, I think the neighbors can appreciate it as well its pretty loud

Edit: looking at your lead ins, the scaler wont help much there, as sometimes the steel is almost welded but I usually get dross from the water cooling the sparks on the backside and is usually all the way around as Ive been keeping my water level as high as possible then dumping water on top of the sheet


I to have a 15cfm compressor, but the pressure switch was adjusted because when it hit 160psi it was breaking hose clamps now it comes on at 60psi, and occasionaly faults out the torch after fire. if its Cutting the compressor kicks on early and doesnt bother it, hell one time I forgot to turn it back on and it was cutting below 50psi and still cut somewhat ok. Other times I get a fault error of Consumeables stuck, but if I manually fire the torch in mach it goes away I think its a speed issue of the fire signal.

Charlene
04-22-2012, 06:07 AM
Thanks Mav, that is helpful. Now I am just trying to figure out the lead in problem. I am trying to figure out how to switch them to internal lead ins... Also, is it okay to use no lead ins at all?

jeepsr4ever
04-22-2012, 09:07 AM
The trick is those small areas promote to a different layer and use the pierce height the same as cut height and no pierce delay. To make a fish like that perfectly you need to know the software better or just have more practice. Layers, lead in and lead out, THC delay, ref distance, pierce height, cut height are all relative to smaller precise cuts. All which are completely capable with this system.

Mav68erick
04-22-2012, 11:00 AM
The trick is those small areas promote to a different layer and use the pierce height the same as cut height and no pierce delay. To make a fish like that perfectly you need to know the software better or just have more practice. Layers, lead in and lead out, THC delay, ref distance, pierce height, cut height are all relative to smaller precise cuts. All which are completely capable with this system.

never thought about different pierce height before on a different layer

Charlene
04-22-2012, 01:12 PM
Okay I have 2 questions:

1. Where is a good place to go to learn more than just the basics for Sheetcam? Is the Sheetcam manual fairly in depth? Would it confuse even a longterm user?
2. How do I speed up the z axis during a cut? It currently moves at a very slow rate before & after a cut.

Thanks guys!

jeepsr4ever
04-22-2012, 10:43 PM
1. Sheetcam.com/youtube.com ect
2. You can increase your plunge rate in sheetcam tools and go to config/home,limits and increase Z home rate from 20% to 40%


http://www.sheetcam.com/Download/SheetCam%20TNG%20Manual_A4.pdf

Charlene
04-23-2012, 08:38 AM
Thanks Matt, that really helped speed it up. Now, my question for today: Why might certain sections in a file not cut? I cut out a couple Signtorch files (very simple deer circles) and I had to go back to three sections of the design and re-run the program in the spot to cut the small sections that it skipped. The uncut sections can be 1/4 of an inch up to an inch. There didn't seem to be any problem like the torch going out. The program ran from start to finish with out stopping. Any ideas?

jeepsr4ever
04-23-2012, 09:34 AM
It didnt go into that area because of your kerf width or the thickness of the beam you setup in your tools. Sometimes you have to lie to sheetcam or change your start and stop. Often cut with no lead in on the very tight designs. This is the absolute toughest part of cutting

Charlene
04-23-2012, 10:09 AM
Well, that might be true in some situations but one of the skips was on the outside border and several others were in fairly large inside cuts. Also, I have decreased the pierce time to .2 and it still seems to pause for almost 2 seconds... Is there someplace else where I need to make a change?

Now, we talked about an xbox controller. Where should I get one and what one should I get?

jeepsr4ever
04-23-2012, 10:31 AM
Settings page in mach 3 may have a delay set.

jeepsr4ever
04-23-2012, 10:36 AM
Missing pierces or piercing then loosing arc? If your loosing arc its because your pause is too long and the plasma thinks you ran through your steel...no more to cut.

Charlene
04-23-2012, 10:37 AM
Oh yeah, one more thing... When I do "run from here" and the gantry travels to that spot, the z axis cycles all the way to the top of the screw and keeps trying to go farther for several more seconds. Shouldn't the z-home switch stop it from doing this? And, why does it travel to the top in the first place? I have it zeroed out at 1.5-2 inches off the table...

Thanks!

Charlene
04-23-2012, 10:43 AM
When misses sections, it is on wide open cut paths. It is loosing the arc for a split second or longer but not at the beginning of the cut.

jeepsr4ever
04-23-2012, 11:11 AM
1. You need to re-zero in Mach 3 after using "run from here". For some reason MAch 3 has classically added up all the Z axis moves in the previous lines with the post processor when using "run from here" so it thinks it is either 20 some inches above or 20 some inches below. If you look at the DRO in mach for Z axis after it is ready to "run from here" there is your answer it may be 10 or so inches + in the negative direction.

2. If you are loosing arc it has nothing to do with the electronics and everything to do with your plasma cutter itself. It could be a worn consumable, air issue or electrical issue with a board inside. It may even be a loose wire from your work clamp or your torch lead.

Charlene
04-23-2012, 02:17 PM
Thanks Matt. Zeroing out the Z took care of that problem. We will keep playing with it to try to get it to stop skipping.

Tonight we finally did the 1"x4" test cuts to tweak the settings to get a cleaner cut. That really made a difference. Now we just need to figure out why we get a little scalloping on some of the cuts but things are moving in the right direction.

Here are a couple things that I cut today:

184

185

186

wickedinhere
04-23-2012, 10:04 PM
Looking great.

jeepsr4ever
04-23-2012, 11:17 PM
Your catching on fast!

Charlene
04-25-2012, 04:24 PM
Alright, here are today's projects. I did some extra work on the raccoon. Please let me know what you think. Also, what would you charge for it? It is @ 24"x24", 12 guage, and so far I haven't put a finish on it.

I think that we have got the 12 gauge dialed in and the cut edge on the 5/8th came out great!

187

188

189

190

wickedinhere
04-26-2012, 01:45 AM
Your on track now.

BigYellowIron
05-22-2012, 01:45 AM
Care to share your torch height control settings?

Charlene
05-22-2012, 05:32 AM
On the 12 guage I use a .06 pierce height & cutting height with a Hypertherm 85 using fine cut consumables set around 42 amps. I hope this helps.

BigYellowIron
05-22-2012, 06:04 AM
how about the delay for the thc?

Charlene
05-23-2012, 02:39 PM
I used .5 for the thc delay.

Now, I wanted to post a pic of a peacock that we cut tonight that I created! Thanks for the help wicked! :B-fly: Let me know what you guys think.

196

jeepsr4ever
05-24-2012, 04:22 AM
Looks good! Now when are you going to cut and build a new Bridge for the town?

Charlene
05-24-2012, 12:42 PM
LOL! It's on the list! :wink:

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