Etching with Plasma?

[barnon]

I have a CNC Plasma table and was wondering if it's possible to etch, say a patent number into steel by running the table on low current and high speed. Anyone ever try this?

Thx for any info.

[Torchhead]

The etching I have done with plasma has all been by mistake (:-). There will be a couple of problems with the approach: 1. You will get inconsistant width especailly if the metal is not perfectly flat so your tip to surface stays constant. The THC MIGHT be able to be set to hold a constant height but it will take a lot of experimenting. The feedrate will need to be pretty constant which is contra to doing small letters with lots of curves. 2. it will wear out tips a lot faster even at the lower current.

Try it with everything set on manual. I would think you would get better results with smaller tips but the results I got by mistake left a pretty wide trench. Maybe if the letters were over 1/2" tall it might be acceptable.

I would think a carbide tip from a TIG and running with a lower voltage high current supply might do a better job but once again it's pure speculation. you might even be able to use a THC that was modified to work at the lower voltage to hold constant height. The DC supply needs to be constant current.


Tom Caudle
www.candcnc.com