So after about 2 years of being less than completely satisfied with my cut quality right off of the machine, I had had enough. I went to get the camera to take a bunch of pics of what the machine cuts were looking like. I had been watching the Plasma flame (through my welding hood) and noticed it was coming right ouf of the torch at an angle (about 20* angle or so which really upset me as it was obviously why i was getting bad cuts) so I dialed up Hypertherm Tech support (yeah should have done that long ago) told the tech guy what the torch was doing, he replied easy your not getting enough air flow to the tip. But the regualtor was at the high side of the rec settings for cutting. he had me dial the amp knob all the way down and air pressure didnt move a bit but was flowing so we knew we were getting enough air into the machine. so he said well ya got a restriction between the machine and the torch head. Well how did i get that and how do I fix it LOL. so got off the phone and started taking it apart form the head back. Very leary about this because its a first and I dont know what to expect but hey gotta do something. take it all apart unscrew the fitting for the head take it all off blow it out, flow seems fine nothing noticed in it couldnt find anything. SO I start to put it back together thinking/hoping that something blew out and fixed the problem. when I get the wire and tubes all set in the molded handle and go to put the other half on I notice the back doesnt fit well at all. get to lookng and the rubber around the back that sits in the molded handles is like 3/8" from sitting flush in there, so i play around with it try and squeeze it closed and could really force it but just wasnt right the angle of the rubber was off and holding it apart. So i screw around a few more miuntes and then decide to try and rotate the rubber 180* and WALLA fit in handle fit togher like it should, beautiful put it all back together and back in the machine, new tips and everything still hoping somehting changed. fired it up to cut and MAGIC the flame was straight, I'm very happy at this point so I open up a part file and setup to cut (1/4" plate and about 400" of cut) my normal cut speeds had NEVER been close to what the book or guys had told me they should be 1/4" was at fastest 32-35 IPM machines starts cutting and looks great cuts look beautiful little heavy on dross but square and NICE so I dial the cut speed up keeps cutting great. Cut speed is now up to 52 IPM vs 32 and cut is SO MUCH BETTER. I am now a very happy Hypertherm owner. Moral of the story the handle was pinching off the air flow and killing my torch, turning the rubber around 180* made it a new machine. still gonna dial in new cut speeds as everything else had always been close (pierce heights, cut heights etc just could not get a good square cut and cut speed sucked) WOHOOOOO going back out to cut some more..  |