I need help cutting perforated sheet metal. My setup is a Hypertherm Powermax 45XP on a 2x4' Avid CNC plasma table controlled by Mach4. I realize the answer to my question might be in the mach 4 settings but I thought of asking here as well.
My design is a simple rectangle. The torch drops down, ignites and then stops immediately. Is there some setting (a "rule" or similar)in Sheetcam I need to change? The Hypertherm generator does otherwise work with non-contiguous surface (keeps the flame alive), I have cut mesh before. I use the plasma CNC infrequently and do not have a great understanding of the intricacies of the system, and I don't remember prior settings.
These are the screen grabs; I am using FineCut for 24Ga
Screenshot 2023-11-07 051847.png (221.49 KiB) Viewed 2850 times
Screenshot 2023-11-07 051944.png (238.45 KiB) Viewed 2850 times
The error message is potentially interesting but don't know what to change:
Screenshot 2023-11-07 052701.png (226.76 KiB) Viewed 2850 times
Does the 45xp have a mode for cutting perforated sheet? My 65 has a setting on the dial that keeps the arc running even if it goes off of the metal momentarily.
Yes the 45XP maintains the arc through brief interruptions in the material.
I managed to fix the problem with some help from the Avid CNC forum; I reduced the settings from 40A and 78V recommended in the Hypertherm manual to 30A and 60V.
In playing with the sheetcam settings I encountered the settings "AD1 Delay After Arc OK Time" set at 0.8(by default?). What is this parameter; there is no mention in the Sheetcam help.
Last edited by DesertRat on Wed Nov 08, 2023 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
That must be something that your controller uses. It's not a normal SheetCam setting. If you look through the gcode, it's probably being sent to the controller.
