candcnc thc hookup problem

[trucks1948]

Hi,i am putting a candcnc DTHC on my practical table,everthings going ok except for getting the arc good hooked up right.I have a hypertherm 1000.I looked on line at hypertherm and thought i had it right but it just doen't test right.Anyone know the right hook up?Just don't want to wait till mon for tec--gotta get cutting lol.Thanks Jim

[J&S]

Sounds like the same problem I'm having. I have a similar setup Hypertherm 1000, mp3000, and candcnc controler. I ended jumping the arc OK but when I turn on the DTHC my torch won't zero it just moves up on each pierce. If you figure it out let me know what you did or send me a wire diagram if you could.
Baraboo? I was born in Cumberland WI, I live in Washington now but my sister has a dairy in Baron and my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all still live around cumberland.

[trucks1948]

Ill do that if i figure it out.Jim

[jeeplogic83]

Ok I will give it a try. I just got all my stuff hooked up but I am using Mach 3 (wincnc is gone for me), I did have the same problem. First you need to make sure that your table is grounded very well. I never had my PCNC grounded except to the outlets and it worked pretty well, surprisingly. I sunk a 8 foot grounding rod at the back of my table and ran 6 ga wire to the table and up to the gantry and just to make sure I ran a 10 ga all the way to the z axis torch mounting plate.(for the PCNC guys make sure you are grounding on exposed aluminum the anodized areas will not ground correctly) this seemed to help a lot with my thc bouncing problem if your table is not grounded right the thc will run all over the place. Make sure all of your + and - are hooked up correctly (simple mistake). You also have to ground your work piece directly not to the cutting grid. try to do some test cuts with your thc off and 0.1 to 0.15 inches from the plate to the tip of the torch to determine your voltage. It took me a solid 2 weeks before I figured out the magic of the DTHC, finally got it right. Being a former PCNC guy I thought that a DTHC was voodoo but now that it is working I don't know how I ever lived without it.
Hope this helps
also get on the CandCNC yahoo groups Tom is always answering questions on there even on weekends.

[trucks1948]

Thanks for your time Greg,ill start by getting everything grounded better.Thanks again Jim

[trucks1948]

Greg could you give us some of the specs for the THC that would get us started?Volts,pierce height ,cut height,ect for the gages that you are cutting?Its a lot of work getting set up,but the few cuts i've made look really nice.thanks Jim

[jeeplogic83]

Greg could you give us some of the specs for the THC that would get us started?Volts,pierce height ,cut height,ect for the gages that you are cutting?Its a lot of work getting set up,but the few cuts i've made look really nice.thanks Jim

No problem,
I cut mostly 11 ga, Pierce height is 0.2" Volts at 100 to 105 which sets my cut height at about 0.1"and 85inches per min I have done 1/8" alum with the same setting and it does great. I have not cut out any other stuff as of yet so those are the only settings I can give right now

This week I will get back to the copper I was cutting when PCNC took a crap on me I will be interested to see what those #'s look like. I am going to have to spring load the floating head so it does not deform the copper on touch off. The one thing that I did do is set my rapid height at 2 inches, it does take a little longer to cut out but you don't have to worry about it crashing on a hung up piece.
By the way Jim, switching over to the CandCNC system was the best investment I have made in my machine. everything is user serviceable the tech support is awesome for mach 3, sheet cam and CandCNC and other than learning a completely new operating system (about a 3 week learning curve) the motors and all the hardware were almost a direct bolt on. $2900 and change was the final cost. For all you practical users that have problems I would highly recommend the CandCNC system retrofit