Good Experiences with LCTHC System

[sbalder]

A few years ago I picked up 3 Spadix adhesive tables and converted them to cnc plasma cutters. At the time I installed a simple thc system that utilized a hobby servo motor and voltage feedback smoothed by a capacitor (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnc_plasma_waterjet_machines/46175-idea_$10_plasma_torch_height.html).

A buyer of one of the machines has run it almost non-stop for the last 2 1/2 years and built a nice plasma art business for himself. He contracted me to build him a new machine and I opted to put a LCTHC system from Caudle on it (http://www.candcnc.com/). Hook up and install was a breeze after I read and re-read the manual. The only thing I was not able to get working correctly was the arc-okay current transformer and I think that had to do with the jumper settings.

We had a chance to run the new system all day Saturday and once we got the setup and tuning between SheetCAM, Mach, and machine it did a beautiful job holding voltage and cut quality.

I think for the money this can't be beat and even though we only build a few plasma machines per year I am definitely going to add this on every machine.

-Steven Balder
SBPRECISION HOME PAGE

[sbalder]

I just purchased 3 more LCTHC systems. One will replace the original thc that I designed and built on a machine we retrofitted several years ago (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnc_pl...ch_height.html) and the other 2 are packaged with Gecko G540's and Caudle's 540 interface board . These are going on 2 smaller pc board assembly machines that we are retrofitting as plasma/router machines.

[sbalder]

Got the latest machine up and running well.... see it here: Multitroniks CNC Plasma Cutter System | eBay

Since I had just bought a LCTHC back in February and the CD-ROM that came with the new ones was dated 8-16-10 I mistakenly assumed I had the latest manual. This was a big mistake as there is a more current manual on the CD that calls out the fact that the power inputs to the G540 interface board are backward. It took a few hours of head-scratching and cussing to figure out why my power supply was going into current limit mode. At least I did not smoke anything with the reverse polarity!

With this issue fixed everything powered up and worked smoothly. This machine is a former circuit board assembler and is smooth as glass.