Our build

[jeepsr4ever]

I am willing to bet you ran out of air pressure

[Charlene]

Okay, I will move the clamp. We had hooked it to the bottom of the water table with a welding magnet.

[jeepsr4ever]

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]

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:


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CLOSE-UP:

[wickedinhere]

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]

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]

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/too...6768_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]

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]

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]

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