Today was all about trying to figure out just what the heck is going on with my plasma cutting table.  It had some initial teething issues back in May, mainly with some noise issues that I thought I had put to rest with some Ferrite Chokes on the USB cable connecting the control box to my laptop.

As I discussed in yesterday’s blog post, I thought I had found a more permanent fix to this issue.  So I unceremoniously ripped the L1 inductor off the main board and soldered a bridge on the carnage that was left.

Well, today I tried it out. To be clear, this short video is not of today’s trials, but actually of yesterday’s initial plasma cuts that clued me in that trouble was a brewing . . . (I actually edited this video for the guys at Langmuir Systems to assist in troubleshooting my issues).

Today I was able to squeeze out another version of the SC-1 safety catch from my now Frankenstein scrap piece of 20 ga metal.  I also drew up a 7mm wrench in Fusion 360 that I need to install a new hot end on the 3D printer, so I plasma cut it as well.

Although raggedy looking, this SC-1 worked fine as a fitting mockup to provide me notes on required (“desired”) modifications.  Note my chicken scratchings on the piece itself.

Yet another shot.

I was then able to make the mods in Fusion 360 CAD for Mod 2.

Which I then tried to print out.  As you can see (somewhat) on attempt #1 (right), the #10 holes are oblong and the center racetrack didn’t cut all the way through. #2 of Mod 2 was even worse as it had multiple non-firing/non-cut issues . . .

Here’s the underside of cut #1 of mod 2.  Lot’s of dross on the top half edge, none on the bottom edge… very curious.

I posted the video, pics and my G Code to Langmuir Systems and am awaiting their response.  Hopefully I can get this dialed in and working halfway decent to make some parts!