Powermax 1650 Down

[GunmetalFab]

Hypertherm 1650 was cutting good at 100 ipm 40 amp consumables 1 second pierce delay and .07 distance when internal hose blew closest to work lead post. Internal board is black on bottom left corner and resistors etc are charred. Unit operates along with Torchmate X Table with AVHC system and complete system is less than one year old. What do I do? Besides drink a bottle of Pendleton Whisky...

[jimcolt]

Question....are you running with a water table? If so....is the work ground clamp attaches inside to the slats...slightly submerged?
Can you get a picture of the damage in the power supply? You also should call tech service at Hypertherm...
Jim Colt

Hypertherm 1650 was cutting good at 100 ipm 40 amp consumables 1 second pierce delay and .07 distance when internal hose blew closest to work lead post. Internal board is black on bottom left corner and resistors etc are charred. Unit operates along with Torchmate X Table with AVHC system and complete system is less than one year old. What do I do? Besides drink a bottle of Pendleton Whisky...

[GunmetalFab]

Hey Jim. To answer the grounding question, it is a water table but I do not ground to the slats. Initially I grounded to the material itself which I guess would have been submerged partially. Torchmate tech support called a few months ago and explained that with a powermax 1650, I should ground to the table outside of the water due to water somehow seeping back to the unit through the ground cable. I wire wheeled a spot on the frame as recommended for new grounding location. I called hypertherm tech support this a.m. and was directed to take the machine to delta tech in sun valley, Ca. The tech asked for the torch but i think they would need a hand held torch for testing not the machine torch?

[jimcolt]

Yes....Torchmate had two or three units fail at one site....and it was water wicking through 25' of work ground cable....then dripping on the main power board inside the unit. In 35 years I had never seen anything like that. It sort of sounded like the same location on the board....so I was wondering!

I'm not sure what Delta Tech needs for a torch.. if they don't have a torch for testing, a machine torch is better than no torch.

Jim

Hey Jim. To answer the grounding question, it is a water table but I do not ground to the slats. Initially I grounded to the material itself which I guess would have been submerged partially. Torchmate tech support called a few months ago and explained that with a powermax 1650, I should ground to the table outside of the water due to water somehow seeping back to the unit through the ground cable. I wire wheeled a spot on the frame as recommended for new grounding location. I called hypertherm tech support this a.m. and was directed to take the machine to delta tech in sun valley, Ca. The tech asked for the torch but i think they would need a hand held torch for testing not the machine torch?

[plain ol Bill]

WOW! This post has really opened my eyes. I too run a water table with a 1250 and until recently my ground was normally attached directly to the work and partially submerged. I switched to a magnetic ground that attaches to the top of the work instead of the factory Hypertherm clamp and it seems to work very well. Rest assured I am going to do some checking on my ground cable to see if there was a wicking problem within it or not.
VERY good information here guys - thanks for posting this up so others could see it!

[JJsCustomDesigns]

Maks me a little leary now. I clamp on the material too. Which means my clamp is upto 1/2 submerged.

Good info. Looks like its time to go buy a magnet like bill and sarge have

[jimcolt]

I made a buss bar on the ground rod driven right next to my machine (through the floor). I removed the clamp from my plasma work ground...and securely bolted it to this buss bar. I then attached two (same size as the work ground) welding cables to the buss bar, bolting one to my slat bed assembly....the other has the clamp (removed from the work ground plasma cable) and is used to provide a better ground for small pieces of material, or to thin material that does not seem to get a good ground through the slats. The ground rod buss bar also has ground wires fom the electronics control box, the height control, etc....


The only systems that we have had the wicking problem are the 1650. It has not occured on the 1250 or any other system that I am aware of.


Jim Colt