My Newb Plasma Table Attempted Build

I would say the material warping tripped the float switch.

rodw wrote:

What made it pause?

Yes. The warp upwards, I just had to press pause again and it carried on. The first one cut without issue.

Clive wrote:

rodw wrote:

What made it pause?

Yes. The warp upwards, I just had to press pause again and it carried on. The first one cut without issue.

Back in the dark old days I would of drilled two holes either end with a hole saw and cut the center out with a 1mm grinding disc by hand. Having our CNC machines sure makes things easy!

thefabricator03 wrote:

I would say the material warping tripped the float switch.

Yes. Now looking at the vid I can see the torch mount wants replacing. I will do it in alli today

phillc54 wrote:

#1 and #2 are the same cut beginning and ending at the bottom centre but with reverse direction. The step in them looks to me like a classic case of backlash. It looks like the fourth leg of the cut (Y direction) has come up short.

#2 and #2b are identical but with the Y motors swapped around. The step in #2b looks a bit more pronounced but that may be the picture resolution.

#3 and #4 are the same cut beginning and ending at the left centre but with reverse direction.
#3 looks to me like backlash. It looks like the fourth leg of the cut (X direction) has come up short.
#4 doesn't make sense to me at all, the fourth leg of the cut (X direction) has grown... Are you sure that wasn't a repeat of #3?

I think your table is possessed

I thought the test you had me do ruled out backlash...?

I'm definitely rolling with your assessment of table possession.

We had some powerful storms roll through about the time this started happening, it didn't occur to me before. I'm wondering if maybe the drivers got messed up. 2 of about 5 of those storms were fierce electrical storms. Everything is on surge protection, but I've seen so many of even the best ones fail to adequately do their job. It's just a wild idea, but maybe it messed ALL of the drivers up (hence no change when swapping them around).

I have a set due to be delivered tomorrow. I'm pretty certain at this point it isn't a software issue. I finally got a brand new config built for this different PC and that's what I cut those squares from yesterday. So that eliminates the possibility of some error in a config jumping across to a new PC by using the same files from the laptop.

thefabricator03 wrote:

Back in the dark old days I would of drilled two holes either end with a hole saw and cut the center out with a 1mm grinding disc by hand. Having our CNC machines sure makes things easy!

I've had to do that hundreds of times lol. Then when I was welding at a CBI vessel shop we had one of those rigs to slot pipe with (using oxy fuel torches). Those were the days.

phillc54 wrote:

dvn4life1972 wrote:

I thought the test you had me do ruled out backlash...?

To me, #1 and #2 look like Y backlash or missed steps in one direction, but then #3 and #4 have me confused....

I'm pretty certain at this point it isn't a software issue. I finally got a brand new config built for this different PC and that's what I cut those squares from yesterday. So that eliminates the possibility of some error in a config jumping across to a new PC by using the same files from the laptop.

I agree, I don't think it is a software issue, now all we need to do is find out what it is.

Put brand new drives on every axis and the same error occurred. I'm getting really tired of this.

Here's the rundown, as much as I'm able to keep it in sequence...

Table cutting fine.
Did software update (plasmac).
Changed consumables (went with finecut).
Attempted to cut new part - error I'm dealing with now occurs.
Changed all pulleys from 3GT 20 teeth to 2GT 16 teeth.
Changed belts to 2GT.
Edited config for new scaling.
Attempted to cut previous part again - same error.
Made adjustments to all belts and Z axis carriage.
Attempted to cut part again - same error.
Reached out on forum.

Since then I've tried moving around drivers, motors, replaced the laptop with a PC (which was an improvement regardless of not curing this issue), uninstalled and reinstalled the drive system - belts, pulleys, retightened everything - removed configs since they were copied from old machine, rebuilt config from new, replaced all drivers, tested backlash...and no change.

Just summarizing here because maybe I'll realize something I haven't before. It's so strange to me that it was cutting fine, and then as if at the flip of a switch the error has occured ever since. I don't believe it was something to do with updating plasmac anymore. Could some change in the tool file have caused some setting to have been tweaked maybe? When I went from cutting good to the error, it was a new part. I always use materialverter to update my tools whenever I add something on Sheetcam. Just spitballing here...

Clive wrote:

thefabricator03 wrote:

I would say the material warping tripped the float switch.

Yes. Now looking at the vid I can see the torch mount wants replacing. I will do it in alli today

New torch mount from alli. photos.app.goo.gl/vzAsq9Shh1RborcL9