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Hypertherm Powermax 380 problems

Well I bought a Hypertherm Powermax 380 based on googling this helpful newsgroup. i am into the learning curb on this thing. like anything its discouraging at first.

Main thing im having trouble with is trying to keep it going along the cut line without loosing the plasma stream, it will die part way into into the cut, often times it is difficult to get the cut going, i noticed that the amp settting has some bearing on this, i lowered the amp setting for 1/8 mild still from full power 30 amps down to 22 amps this helped quite a bit. also cleaning the mill scale off. is there anything else at issue here? or is it just a matter of practice practice practice, if its a defect in the machine, its still under warranty. thanks bob.

Reply to
bob
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I have a 600 myself - among other things, the ground or work clamp may not be making a good connection to scale covered metal. Also the arc must be maintained or it goes out - and must be restarted manually. If cutting wire screen and scale it might be best to flip the switch to have the high voltage arc in a automatic re-accruing mode from a one-shot mode.

Take your grinder and make a shinny spot to connect the work clamp to and try that first. Scale doesn't conduct very well at all.

Are you dragging the head along the metal - I assume the standard 4 post nose is being used. It is set to be dragged along a line. (touching the work)

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

bob wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Sounds like two things possible. One is holding the torch to far from the work. You really need to be touching or almost touching the work with the torch when using the shielded consumable (especially important with a small plasma like the 380). The other is going to slow. Plasma is a fairly fast process and for best results there's a fairly narrow range of speed available. To slow and the metal will cut away from the arc and it will go out. To fast and you won't cut through. The best results are obtained by going as fast as you can with the trail of sparks angling back slightly. If the sparks are going straight down then you're going to slow. If they're angling back more than about 20-30 deg then you're going to fast.

Most likely you've got a problem with the speed from what you've posted. Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

thanks for the tips, i will try again

Reply to
bob

What is your powersource (110 or 220) and air comp capacity?

Reply to
cl

I am plugged into a Generac 4000 xl generator, 230 volts ,4000 watts. I can pull maybe 17 amps out of it (220 v). I could wire the plug 110 if necessary ?. I can pull 30 amps then on 110v. My air compressor is a Ingersol Rand 5 hp, gas engine air compressor, the ones u see with two small tanks but volume is NO PROBLEM, I have 50 feet of air hose going to two air filters. I a pretty sure the air is dry and oil free. But I could be very wrong.

Reply to
bob

Sounds like that isn't a problem. Try a new set of consumables and verify a good ground connection.

(One day I was getting some really messy results with my 380 on 1/4 al and I couldn't figure out why. Five minutes later I realized I didn't have the ground clamp attached to anything. I never lost fire though)

Reply to
cl

It still amazes me a plasma cutter will cut (however crappy) with the ground not attached. It has been several years since I made this mistake. Steve

Reply to
its me

It's possible the machine is sensing bad power. I run a Powermax 600 on 8000 Watts of inverters, and if I crank the 600 up to max, it will frequently break the arc mid cut. Running a little less than max, or adding a generator supplement solves the problem. You might try the

380 on grid power and see if acts differently. If so, you could try adjusting the governor on the generator and see if that improves things.

Wayne

Reply to
wmbjk

Scale is really nasty sometimes. I had a slab of 3/8" IIRC on the table and it was hot rolled - scale thick. The table wouldn't connect. I had to grind a shinny spot and clamp onto the slab myself. (slab is slang :-) ). I later determined that even on nice metal - the work clamp was really a post clamp (a.k.a. Battery charger) and had little contact surface to pass current. I replaced it with a 300 amp that (I don't use

300 but it improves the connection!!) has three rods that clamp on the metal. Easy task. Lower resistance and lower inductance - both killers to DC current and HF arc.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

bob wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

It will but not as well. The GROUND and the work clamp are close to the same. If the work is grounded - metal table or ... there is a connection through the power cable.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

its me wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

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