Trying to cut a nice hole

[Fastyankee13]

I have had my growth series for a few years now. Its a love hate relationship for sure.
When I first set the machine up it made pretty descent bolt holes but since changing to Acumove 2 the quality of my bolt holes well they suck. I did do some adjustments to my lead screw y axes end play which made a huge difference on larger holes but I still can not get a descent bolt hole. see pics. This stainless first time cutting stainless. both sides I also got a lot of curf. second photo is back side.

 

[LECS-Chad]

Those hole look a little small. With "conventional" air plasma you should be getting 2:1 ration on bolt hole size: material thickness.

Also changing things like LEADIN radius and those things will also improve your hole quality.

 

[Fastyankee13]

The holes are 3/8th in .25 thick stainless.
I did notice my machine making terrible circles. So I started looking at the leed screws and they were tolerably out of wack. Tightened all that up and shes running good. But when I do bolt holes no good.
I guise I'm better off doing a pierce only But I'm not sure how to go about that. I usually use a good grade reamer on my bolt holes. How do I do just pierce so it ends up in the center of were the hole needs to be.
I feel bad for Ziggy when he gets me in class in June.

 

[LECS-Chad]

The holes are 3/8th in .25 thick stainless.
I did notice my machine making terrible circles. So I started looking at the leed screws and they were tolerably out of wack. Tightened all that up and shes running good. But when I do bolt holes no good.
I guise I'm better off doing a pierce only But I'm not sure how to go about that. I usually use a good grade reamer on my bolt holes. How do I do just pierce so it ends up in the center of were the hole needs to be.
I feel bad for Ziggy when he gets me in class in June.

Pierce only is generating a 1/8" circle and when you generate the tool path you will get a pierce hole. Drill from the backside then you wont be killing bits.

 

[Fastyankee13]

I guise the challenge would be placement were the center of the hole needs to be.

 

[Doing Well]

Have you ran a speed test on the holes? You might need to slow your speed on the holes.