torch crashing now not cutting through

I posted this in the wrong form earlier: (another question below)

I am working on my first ever sign although I have yet to cut much with my setup. I am about half way through the cutting and the torch will go zero, raise up, pierce, and then plunge into the work and continue cutting while dragging the tip and ruining the sign. The first half of the cut went smooth enough though. After it was ruined I kept cutting, changing settings trying to figure it out, and it crashed 2 more times then cut the rest of the piece without issue. Ive read where this could be a grounding issue so I ground the mill scale off a fresh sheet to hook the ground clamp to and tried again. It did the same thing on the second pierce. Attached are the sheetcam settings and pictures of what happened. Anything to look for?

So I adjusted my volts from 117 to 118 and the torch never crashed BUT no I am not cutting through. Its deffinatly worse on the Y axis the X axis is pretty good but about 30% of the Y axis movements are cut through?
Thanks

Being new to CNC cutting I suggest you put THC in manual mode if the item you are cutting is less than 6-8"s square (This will be using NO THC for height control). Next thing you want is to make sure your cut height is .060 while cutting with THC on. This will mean your THC tip volts are set properly. The higher the tip volts the higher the cut, lower the tip volts the lower the cut. If you don't have your tip volts close to your book spec and tested correct you have moments where your either crashing into the plate or cutting too high. The connections must also be perfect. If you have something plugged in half way you can get random issues. You also want to make sure your work clamp cable (Often called ground) from your plasma cutter is not coiled up. This will make a magnet and cause big time issues.

Lasty if you get errors like tip volts out of range or when your compressor kicks on the torch dives or just before the compressor comes on you may be taxing your air supply. There are things to check out. In one of your posts you have arc lead in checked but a zero in the lead in length box.

You also have a code snippet (turn that off), you should try a .08 overcut, and set your min distance for THC to 6. Your tool shows you cutting 180ipm. Try it at 170. And are you sure that's 12ga. Looks like 10 ga.

Thanks for all the info. Ill give it a whirl tomorrow.
Thanks again!

I've had intermittent issues most of the day with when the torch is zeroing the torch, it will just keep jamming the torch into the material. My height controller does "sense" though. I stopped the torch mid cut to measure torch height It's atleast .14 from tip to material. Same settings as the day before. I tried changing over to your recommended settings and I could never make it cut, kept crashing when zeroing torch. First second before dthc kicks on is fine though. Attachment 592

Ok so 2 things


1. You need continuity to sense z home. This means you ideally want fresh steel. If it is not available use a spray bottle of water so the torch gets its initial sense.
2. Running at .140 is too high for fine cut. Drop your tip volts by 7 volts. Also if your going to cut rusty material it may want to be cut slower.


It is a good practice to run your z around 1 inch above your plate and zero z there. If your z is set to have zero below the plate it will rapid down. This can happen when you swap materials...especially going from flat plate to square tubing. Does not hurt to ref z axis and zero the Z before you start cutting. Cutting material that is not fresh you will definitely not cut through anywhere near book speeds.

All good info Matt, having same issue here.

Anyway you can make a video going through all the issues a person might have, and how to fix.

Example. - Is your torch height not working, and then list off what you just said.

We did have dirty metal, will do more tests today. We can't ref any axis, as it's not working. I flipped Z to ref in negative direction because positive ref was slamming into the slats. Not sure if the direction of motor is backwards, or if your ref was set backwards?

Maybe I just need to call you today?

Yes please call in 1-855-433-3689