Auto Height Setting on older Torchmate Table

I have an older model I believe its' the Torchmate 2 bolt together. Here's a few photos of the table. I'm the 3rd owner of this setup. So so far I'm pretty pleased with the results considering it's a downdraft table and pretty old by todays standards.

My question is in regard to the Auto Height setting on the coltrol box.. The previous owner never used the Auto setting he preferred to use it in manual mode.. however I'm thinking it might be beneficial to use to Auto feature as I'm am finding that as slag, drass builds up on my slats some material especially thinner 1/8 or 16ga can very in height.. due to the build up on the table slats.. The torch head can get awfully close and sometimes drags across the material or molten metal builds up on the tip of the nozzle. The majority of the stuff I'm cutting is at .06 or .07 height.. What are your experiences with Auto height control? I know this is not quite as effective as the new models with the Ohemic hight controls..

Secondary question: are you guys clamping your ground clamp direct to the material or on the table slates? As I know a good ground is very important for this type of height control.

Thanks
Carlos Macias
TAC1 FAB

 

Shouldn't be an issue using the AVHC, many people don't understand the concept of how voltage affects cut height. It is best to do a sample run in Manual Mode with the torch the correct distance off of the material on flat plate and monitor what the voltage is reading under the Current Voltage value. Change your Set Voltage to the average of that value then you can switch over to Auto mode. General rule of thumb is if torch is too close to the material then raise the Set Voltage. Here is a good video on the settings of the AVHC box.

 

That was very helpful thank you. I'll do some more reading/research and try to get a better understanding of the AVHC..

One question I have though is on dwell time.. I didn't know there was a dwell time setting on the AVHC.. so I've been setting my dwell time on my cut path based one the material I'm cutting. Does one cancel out the other?

 

There is a Pierce Delay in the AVHC box, this is two fold, one it determines how long the torch stays at Pierce Height before dropping down to Cut Height and two it determines when the Pierce Complete signal is sent to the signal generator to receive the Ok to Move Signal. Once signal generator receives Ok to Move if any dwell time exists on signal generator then that will kick in as well.