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BgHurt
01-26-2013, 03:31 PM
Hypertherm powermax 45 machine torch. Latest Mag mount Bulltear setup.

Which way is actually correct, as I have seen it mounted both ways gold teeth forward and gold teeth towards the back? What's right? Do the set screws go into the teeth or the fiberglass?

Also, suggested distance from bottom of bottom mount to tip of torch? Does it matter? I have seen short and long distances in pictures.

One last thing, how many people are using limits on all axises? Candcnc support and manuals seem to say no need with steppers. Just homes and the mag break away? And is everyone using dual home on the slaves axises?

thanks in advance. Just trying to put the finishing touches finally....

jeepsr4ever
01-27-2013, 03:42 AM
Good questions

It is always best to take the gear rack off since it is redundant and adds to the diameter of the torch body. That being said it should be facing forward. The radius of the body fo the torch fits in one of the radial cuts in the back of the unitmount. This would mean the center screw (for bodies smaller than 1.5" and is 5/16-18 thread) would hit the gear rack or the body if the rack was removed.

Your second question depends on the peices your doing. Because we make the machines capable of cutting large tubing it isnt always best to put the torch at the very top. The reason for this is you want the torch (when plate cutting) to go about 1/4" below the top fo the slats before the Z axis bottoms out.

Limit switches are really only a way to turn off power to the motors. In a machine with a ballscrew the mechanical advantage of the screw stops the gantry after a limit is hit. With gear rack the power is dropped however the gantry keeps freely moving due to its momentum. This is why we do not call out limit switches in our builds with gear rack. What we do instead is we allow extra travel in the linear rails past the gear rack itself and allow it to glide into a stop. This is the safest way to control a limit. We add in extra travel to every system to allow freedom of cutting maximum plate sizes without trying to get the gear to the end of the rack for a half hour (example a travel of 48x48 wouldnt allow you to totally cut a 4x4 sheet instead we go to 50x50 travel)

Mag-lok will take good care of the torch and the extra travel will take care of the limits. You can put a home switch here and there at your will. You may find that unless your always cutting the same parts home switches arent worth the effort.

BgHurt
01-28-2013, 03:33 PM
So, I don't need homes because I put the torch to the x and y start location manually before I tell it to start cutting? Just trying to understand the process. Once I get it in sheetcam to cut the parts as desired how do I get the torch to 0,0 in Mach and Mach to start cutting the file?

jeepsr4ever
01-28-2013, 11:19 PM
You press "Zero" next to the axis readouts on the screen...not REF but zero.

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