Ogre 4x8 turn key plasma table

[_Ogre]

[_Ogre]

thanks mc. rotary table cutting a lot better. this is what the pic above was supposed to look like
except the torch was dragging as you can see from the top segment that didn't drop out.
that was with the thc off, turned it on and the tube cut better (next pic)



you can see i'm using lead in and lead out on each cut (in previous post), but there is a divot at each start/end point
it's not cut into the edge but laying on top and separate from the cut line.
any ideas?



cutting at 50ipm, 30a w/finecut and 70volts; had to increase the cut height to .08 or the tip would drag
the thc is a little squirrelly on the rotary head, even at .08 i can barely see a gap or arc
no top dross and miniscule bottom dross that will take 3 sec to remove with a burr
and of coarse now i have to go back thru all of my tube cope programs in sheetcam and re-post with the correct setup
oh the joys of learning a new machine :D

[jeepsr4ever]

Longer or different lead ins and you can even try no lead out.

[_Ogre]

mc: we'd like to wire stop buttons on both ends of the gantry and a switch on the maglok plate to stop the machine. does our machine have the inputs available to add this? i'd like to run the same 2 wire circuit to all 3 switches. not sure if stop and estop are different, stop would be fine. we do a lot of cutting on the rotary head, with the controller sitting on the table but i'd like to have an easy to hit stop button for the operator.

[jeepsr4ever]

You should use the X or Y axis limit and re-pin the one you use in ports and pins to "limit". You want normally closed switches and wire them together and to the Estop on the backside of the front panel of your big black box (controller) (IF YOU WANT TO USE ESTOP...WE SUGGEST CHANGING PINOUT TO LIMIT). There is a staple looking jumper in there now. Estop is configured to "normally closed" (thus the jumper). So a 3 pole microswitch or a microswitch capable of normally open or normally closed like this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-pc-TEMCo-R...item56534e158a
Those are very nice we have used them.

Refer to this thread for wiring those

http://www.bulltear.com/forums/showt...-Home-switches

[_Ogre]

got a #3 drive fault today after cutting a tube.
it kicked out the dc and reset by turning the dc back on.
no problem, just fyi. only happened once.
which motor is controlled by drive 3?

[jeepsr4ever]

Drive fault 3 flashing red blinks? Did Mach show the error as well? Did you note your temp under the tool window in Mach?

[_Ogre]

i saw the drive fault in mach at the bottom of the screen
i saw red lights on the control box and saw it was off
i turned it on and all was good.
i'll check what lights are red and the temp next time.

i wasn't cutting much today, just a test cut or 2 for monday

[_Ogre]

you probably cut a lot of plate in your shop, can you give me your thoughts on cutting a sheet of base plates?
i posted this over on pirate and plasma spider

have a job coming up; it involves cutting 3/8 plate into 7x7 base plates with 3/8'' bolt slots in each corner.

can i cut all the holes and then cut the sheet into squares like a grid of 48 and 96 inch lines
or do i need to cut individual squares with the obligatory 1/4'' spaces, aka waste skeleton

either way i get the same number of squares,
i just have a larger piece left over for smaller projects.
cutting the grid would seriously reduce my cut inches (by half) and pierces.

[jeepsr4ever]

You definitely do not want to spread the heat around. A good operator will nest but orient the start points to finish one part at a time on thicker material. The expansion rate is incalculable for Mach and it doesn't take it into account, neither does sheetcam. For this reason a good operator should understand that you don't throw a sheet of thick material up and run a program where your making lots of parts and your nest does everything inside then does the outside. What happens is your left with thinner geometry on some and thicker on others. Its physics. You need to feed that plasma or it will spike tip voltage. So a little more than double KERF width between parts.