I need help. Plasma broke down...

I have a thermal dynamics cutmaster 80xl thats worked great for years. Went out and fired it off, and nothing. AC light came on, all the lights worked great, but no pilot arc. Checked the cord for continuity, and everything was good. Have been running it with 2 inline water seperators and have it set at 60 psi. I fear that if i take it to the shop, its gonna cost me an arm and a leg.

Anyone help?

 

Seems obviouse, but have you replaced the consumables?

 

yea, all new consumables. Thats what i thought at first too. Didnt help the problem.

 

OUCH! sounds like the duty cycle might have been exceeded and a IC board went bad.

 

did you try a blood transfusion? oh wait not that type of plasma

 

When you say nothing happens, including no air?

 

The trigger switch may be bad. I replaced my switch once and it cost almost as much as replaceing the whole torch cable. The second time that it went bad I did replace the tourch ***y. for $465.

E mail the factory with the problem and they will tell you how to test for repairs.

 

We have one at work. The manual is pretty detailed wtih troubleshooting info.

 

Try this.

http://victortechnologies.com/IM_Uploads/DocLib_5280_CE%20CutMaster%2080XL%20Service%20Manual%20(0-2725).pdf

 

Another dum question, how about the ground?

 

Marty the guys at TEC welding supply, behind bloods shop are pretty cool and inexpensive, they didn't charge me for a 5 min. fix on my mig

 

Ill check em out. they're right around the corner from my work.

 

Don't need a ground to get the pilot arc going. We go through a LOT of plasma cutters at the school, and the cost of repairing them keeps going up. We've lifed out 6 of them just for torch leads... The replacement cost of the torch is higher than the depreciation left on the unit... Corporate math....

Anyway, good luck, 'flash. Do you hear the air solenoid clicking when you pull the trigger? If not, try doing a continuity check on the trigger switch contacts. That would be your cheapest electrical problem...