Plasma Setting Problems

[loopy251]

I need some help, we have a Practical CNC Plasma Cutter Hypertherm 600. We've been cutting 1/8 mild steel, 40 amps at 117 inch per min. All works great. We're changing to 1/16 and 18 guage. Im having some problems setting my machine to the right amps, and cut speed because our plasma cutter is chewing the steel up. I need the right settings please. ASAP!

[The Inventor]

I don't have your model but lets see if this well get you close.
1. Set the machine to 50% (20 amps)
2. Set the feed at 100 ipm
3. Do a 2" or 3" test cut and see what it looks like.

(This is just a starting point!!! Next comes the fine tuning.)

4. Then move over and increase the feed by 5 ipm do this for each cut up
to say 130/135 ipm and compare the cuts. (Move your cuts all over the test plate
so the heat from the earlier cut doesn't effect your next test cut.)

If you are still blasting out a cut, then go back and cutback your amps by 5
And start over again at 100 ipm (Increasing it on each cut by 5 ipm)
Repeat as needed.

One more thing I forgot to say is torch height... keep it short; maybe a 1/16"
(.060) or 3/32 (.094)... the higher it is the wider the cutting stream will be.

[Torchhead]

Originally Posted by loopy251 I need some help, we have a Practical CNC Plasma Cutter Hypertherm 600. We've been cutting 1/8 mild steel, 40 amps at 117 inch per min. All works great. We're changing to 1/16 and 18 guage. Im having some problems setting my machine to the right amps, and cut speed because our plasma cutter is chewing the steel up. I need the right settings please. ASAP!

If you use the same tips you need to keep the amps to match the tip. Closer to 30A if you turn it down. You will then need to increase your feedrate on the thinner material.

If you can get your hands on the Fine Cut consummables for your 600, then you can move your amps down and your feedrate too.

Hypertherm publishes cut charts for all of their machines and tips. I don't know about the 600 but on the bigger models they recommend that you reduce the amps to 25 (with a 40A tip) and rise the arc voltage and increase the feedrate to about 200 IPM for 18ga.

I never got very good results by lowering the Amps on bigger tips but I didn't take a lot of time trying after I discovered the Fine Cut tips. I cut 16ga at 30A and about 120IPM and get nice tiny kerfs and very small amounts of light dross.

Thin stuff really warps easily making cutting without an accurate THC a challenge.

TOM CAUDLE
www.CandCNC.com