Well I decided to pull the case on the new PP70, what else is there to do on Christmas Eve besides mess with your plasma cutter.....the life of a bachelor I guess...
I found one stripped screw on the case, but it came out okay with a little encouragement.
What I found inside was almost what I expected.....the spark gap was off....In fact I can't imagine how it could have gotten as it was unless someone accidentally whacked the gap electrodes while the case was open...one electrode looked fine the other was bent way over to about 45 degrees. No way did it just bend that way even if the unit was dropped. Which it may have been as I found the air regulator was twisted at an odd angle and the dial seems to not be mounted parallel with the front plate and the bracket it is mounted on is pretty beefy and spot welded to the front plate...short of smacking it I don't think it will easily be bend into a more aesthetic position but it works fine as is, probably just a manufacturing variation and is purely cosmetic.
I found some instructions here on the forum about adjusting the spark gap, so using a plastic feeler gauge I set the gap to .0525, which looks to be about where the old one was and where it would be if the electrodes were not bent. And Now we have ignition....yes.....I would like to know the optimal gap setting. I expect the correct gap will be needed for optimal operation and I do not want to burn up the unit. I made a light test cut but had some problems with the arc dying (probably me). I also felt like I had to cut very slowly on my 1/8 inch angle iron test piece, maybe 1 inch every 5 seconds. Maybe that is related to the gap or my technique, I do not know.....