New Member-

[ArmorUp]

In March of this year I received my new ArcLight ArcMax 5x10 foot table with a Hypertherm 105. It’s been a learning curve to say the least. Been in the auto collision repair industry for 47 years and wanted to diversify with a CNC plasma machine. I think it’s a nice machine, but I’ve had several problems with it as I’ve tried to go into production over the last month or so.

I’ve been in contact with ArcLight several times, had some new parts shipped under warranty, but the problems persist. I’m reaching out to see if perhaps others could help with possible motor drive issues and point me in the right direction.

First I replaced the yellow (cat 5) cable from the Hypertherm DTH to computer per ArcLights request due to the torch not firing. It seemed to help, but soon the problem returned after the machine was shut down and restarted.

ArcLight then sent PWM sensor, I found screws had not been tightened on the Hypertherm unit at the green and red sensor plug. Found other screws loose as well.

ArcLight sent refurbished controller, but it was a no go as the as the Y X motor controller was bad. Had to transfer Y X motor controller from original box to refurbished one. Found Allen bolts for G251 Gecko drive were cross threaded and while working with ArcLight on phone, Allen bolts broke while transferring this piece to refurbished controller. Machine would work for the day, but after shut down and start up, gantry wouldn’t work.

Then AL sent a complete new YX motor controller because of Allen bolt break and after I requested, 2 new ribbons. Installed motor controller and new ribbons. Worked for about 2 days and went in this afternoon and I’m back to no gantry-same old problem after shutting down last night and restarting this afternoon.

Any thoughts on where I can go from here? AL has been very attentive, but I have orders due this week and no resolution.

I appreciate any ideas you can throw at me.

Thanks, Dave.

[adbuch]

Welcome aboard Dave! Sorry to hear you are having such difficulties after spending over 30K on your new table. It sounds like Al has been doing his best to help you. You say you now have a brand new replacement xy controller. I assume there is an additional controller for z? When you say that the gantry won't work, do you mean that only the gantry won't move, or that both the gantry and carriage won't move? Does this happen only when running a program, or is it also a problem when manually jogging the gantry and/or carriage around the table? I took a look at their website and as far as I could see they really don't go into any detail about what kind of motors they use (stepper or servo), is the system open loop or closed loop with encoders, etc. You are welcome to phone me to discuss and I will try to help you. I will send you a PM.
David