L-Tec Plama Cutter woes
Brian Walsh
retirement dream of fabricating the stainless steel brewery I have
designed.
It is an L-Tec brand, model PCM-VPi. I bought it from a welding firm in
New Hampshire that had excellent eBay ratings. According to the owner,
he no longer had any use for the L-Tec, as he had just purchased a
Hypertherm G3, which did everything the L-Tec did and more. (He shipped
the L-Tec to me in the Hypertherm box.) I also bought an air
compressor, and had my electrician wire up a receptacle in the shed with
220 volts /50 amps.
The machine powers on, a small cooling fan rotates, green power lamp
lights. During the air check, I turn the dial on top of the air filter
so that 50+ psi of air passes through the torch nozzle. When I switch
off the air adjustment, air stops passing through the torch nozzle.
Hooked the ground cable to a test piece, pressed the button on the torch
and dragged the torch along the test piece. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
There are no obvious burned components or burned odor about the machine.
The packing box shows no sign of having been dropped; all connections
seem tight; the safety interlock switch works, because when I removed
the front panel, the red overload lamp lit up and the unit did not power
on. I've checked the continuity of the torch switch and the torch
hose. I've spoken with the ESAB techs in SC and while they have tried
to be helpful, I guess they don't really have the time to troubleshoot
this older machine. Which brings me to the point of this doleful post.
Can anyone advise me how to check if the unit is receiving a signal that
sufficient air is available? I'm thinking that the unit does not know
this, and that is why it won't cut. I saw a mention of an air sensor
switch in another post, and I'm hoping against hope that only this is
the problem.
Thanking you in advance,
Brian Walsh
Gainesville, FL
Emmo
Schumacher, was a lift start, where you put the nozzle on the metal, pull
the trigger, and lift just a bit...
You might increase the air a bit, I think I use about 60-65 lbs of
pressure...
Did anyone have a manual, either the original owner or the ESAB guys?
"Brian Walsh" <rpcv...@cjtwofers.net> wrote in message
news:MEhgh.841$Cv1...@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
Bart D. Hull
plasma cutter that worked as you described. It would not sustain the arc
unless you could give it a minimum of 90 psi to start and 70 psi
continuous.
We connected it to a nice large gas powered air compressor that could
keep up with these demands and it worked just fine. A small workshop
compressor just couldn't cut it. (Literally.)
Let me know if that was the problem.
Bart D. Hull
bdhull...@inficad.com
Tempe, Arizona
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Steve Smith
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