Rooster tail

whiskeymike · Post by **whiskeymike** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 1:02 am

i'm cutting .25 mild steel with Hypertherm 65 with 65 amp nozzle and getting decent cuts with fairly low dross using book specs. Odd part is a third of the time, I'm getting a 3 ft rooster tail about a foot tall, most often in front of the cut. When I've had a rooster tail before, it was on a bad pierce, or it wasn't cutting all the way through, or something else was wrong.

Going to check the nozzle in the morning, but it's pretty new. Any other ideas what might cause the Sparks?

urbnsr · Post by **urbnsr** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 7:07 am

I have lost a new nozzle after just a couple of pierces - Spring-back from a probe for top of material. Ouch! That was expensive.

Paul

Post by **acourtjester** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:16 am

Why are you using a 65 amp nozzle on .250" mild steel, the 45 amp nozzle works just fine with 45 amps and 48 IPM.

whiskeymike · Post by **whiskeymike** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 11:30 am

acourtjester wrote:Why are you using a 65 amp nozzle on .250" mild steel, the 45 amp nozzle works just fine with 45 amps and 48 IPM.

Trying to get more speed. The cut quality is acceptable for this part, and it gets the job done in half the time. I have to cut a few thousand pieces so it adds up.

If I can just tame this rooster. It keeps setting my shop rags on fire!

whiskeymike · Post by **whiskeymike** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 1:18 pm

I raised my water a bit and increased the speed and it seems to have calmed down a lot.

Post by **acourtjester** » Sat Feb 20, 2016 4:15 pm

Maybe you could put a deflector on you torch here is one I used for water splashing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW7w9mp ... wq0KTKpuRw
Fire not good

Post by **Bobcat320** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 9:28 am

I was cutting a bunch of 3/16 beam plates this past weekend. Holes and angularity kept getting worse and worse. Then, the rooster tails started flying! I had read another post where the culprit seemed to be low air pressure and Jim Colt suggested checking everything from the compressor to the torch nozzle. All was good until I got to the filter in my PM65, I had totally forgotten about it. It had been in there for about 9 months and finally plugged up enough it was not letting enough air through the machine to the torch. Replaced the filter and immediately back to perfect holes, no angularity and rooster tails!

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