Tolerance= torchmate 1

[Brenham Iron Works]

I have a torchmate 1 and the tolerance sucks. shaky on sharp turns leaving shark bites and really bad on small holes. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[jimcolt]

Torchmate has a pretty well respected tech service group. I would suggest describing the issues to them. Usually the types of things you describe are related to 1. Any backlash or slop in the drives. If you can put your hand on the gantry or torch carriage and move it back and forth even .010", then that mechanical slop will show up in your cut edge. Determine where thhe backlash is and make adjustments to the mechanical components to remove it. 2. Drive tuning. Once you have removed any and all slop in the mechanics of the machine...then refer to Torchmates procedures to tune the x and y axis drive motors. If the drive settings are to sluggish, the plasma will provide excessive dross in corners and small holes. If the drives are too hot....you will get overshoot and ripples in your cut edge when cornering.

Jim Colt Hypertherm

[Brenham Iron Works]

I have spoke with the tech. support team. The slop is in the gantry that suggest that I build. Does anyone use this style gantry or any ideas of a new design.

Thanks,

Brandon

[cjdave]

first do all the things Jim said, if you get all those things right and the results don't totally solve the problem (saw tooth on corners) then the problem is: If you built the torchmate 1 to the plans the gantry is the problem the flat bar that is used does not have the rigidity to make smooth cuts at any kind of speed. I had that system and had the same problems the only fix is to build a more rigid gantry. You can upgrade to the Torchmate 2 gantry, torchmate will help you do this and supply you with parts. I chose to rebuild my whole system. i build my own gantry (similar aluminum extrusion to the tm2 gantry) and upgraded my complete electronics with parts from a different manufacturer. Best move I made, torchmates stuff is good and there customer service is excellent there product works good and I never in the 5 years I ran there stuff had a problem. I found there prices a little high for my liking and that was my reason to switch, it cost me almost the same to build my new system electronics and hardware included (not including my time) as it would have cost to get there auto torch height control and my new system has it built in.

[Brenham Iron Works]

what other manufacturer did you go to.

[cjdave]

For the mechanical end I built most of the stuff myself. I did a lot of research (cnczone has a ton of good info on machine construction) and a lot of shopping around, purchased all my linear bearings and a nice ball screw (for the z axis) on ebay for a fraction of what they cost new, used cncrouterpars bearing cassets for the long axis. Purchased a piece of 3x3 8020 aluminum extrusion on ebay from there factory outlet (extrusion and cncrouterparts cassets bolt right together). Some stuff I bought new like the gear racks from more gear. The electronics I used were Candcnc bladerunner AOI with the built in torch height control. I kept my machine table and sold the gantry right off it, sold all the torchmate electronics, cables, software etc... got enough for the used torchmate stuff than it cost me for the new electronics and most of the hardware. Planned it out so I had most of the new stuff built and here before I took the old system apart so I had minimal down time. Going this route is not for everyone, but I have enough experience and equipment in the shop that it was a pretty easy build for me and took about 3 days total labor time for the swap over. I could have done it in a weekend if I needed to. best thing is the machine is so much more accurate and fast super fast comparied to the old system, I can run 150+ inches a min with clean corners and no dross. Gave me the ability to use my machine on more profitable projects and not worry about poor quality parts. It runs hands off for full 5x10 sheets of material all day long.
If you go this route I have some pics of the swap. I can also help point you in the right direction on some stuff.