Proper Settings
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- 1/2 Star Member
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:13 am
Proper Settings
Hate to bother you all with a newb question, but I could really use some help with the proper settings for my torch. I'm using a Thermal Dynamics A60 torch, blaze controller on a plasmacam 4x8 table. I cut almost exclusively 16 guage and I cut out keychains, small magnets, spinners, license plates and small wall art mostly. I have also made several benches and a few other things. I can't seem to get my settings right though. I'm using 60 amp tips because I can't get the 40's to work at all (they seem to pop a lot and leave a lot of slag), but for what I'm doing, it seems like I should be using lower amperage tips. I've played with the voltage settings quite a bit and, honestly, can't see much difference. It "seems" to do really well at about 120VOLTS. I set the amperage to 30 (again, on a 60amp tip). I get the least slag and the cleanest runs at about 200ipm, but some things seem to do better if I go a bit slower (other things seem to burn up if I go too slow). I have been playing and playing for months and I have it down where I can cut a great deal of what I want with excellent results, but I can't even come close to cutting some of the detail work I see others do (then again, I accidentally get it to cut some pretty tight resolution parts sometimes). I've also gone from using tons of consumables to getting literally hundreds of pieces out of a tip and electrode, so I have no complaint there, but I would just really love to find a set of "standards" that I could work with. I bought my table used and the settings that were programmed into it don't work at all. For instance, the 16 guage settings had me running at 65ipm, with a .5 delay and so high that it wouldn't ever pierce. Anybody have a sample set of approximate settings I can play with for different gauges from say 20 to 1/4" plate? Like I said, most of what I do is 16 guage, simply because the cost is so low for the metal (42/sheet right now), but I would like to play with some other things as well. I cut an average of 300-400 items per day, so anything that makes things better in terms of quality, speed, etc. would be great. I use Corel 5 in wireframe, DXF tool, into Sheetcam and then into MACH3. I see people talking about .060 kerf and I say I wish, lol. I'm getting more like .1 kerf at best.
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- 1/2 Star Member
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:13 am
Re: Proper Settings
I would be willing to pay for some help with some baseline settings for my system. Really would like to know the best "guidelines" for sheetcam/mach3. Thanks and Best Wishes.