1/4 Inch steel on a PlasmaCam......

[phillysteak527]

Hello all, my name is Philip Haasnoot and I am a student at Stony Brook university. I'm trying to cut parts on a Plasma Cam table out of 1/4 inch steel and wanted to know if anyone has any favorite settings for cutting such material. All i really need is a ballpark Feedrate and Amperage. Right now i'm getting slag and i cannot tell whether this is normal or if it's because I have the machine setup incorrectly. I was able to fix the terrible aspect ratio I was getting by adjusting the space between the cutter and the material(i have it at about 1/8 inch off the material Thanks for any assistance in advance.

[zeoncomp]

The best thing that you can do is to follow instruction about this from the plasma manufacturer .... For example if you use a Hypertherm Powermax 1000 and you cut with 60A heads you use 138V - 60A and 86ipm for 1/4" mild steel

[phillysteak527]

Well i can find the correct Amp rateing to cut the steel, the problem I was haveing was finding the correct Feed Rate. right now it's running at 40IPM..... which could be a large problem if i should be running it at 86IPM. I'll try a test cut next time i get the chance.

[Torchhead]

What zeoncomp is trying to say is the brand of table has nothing to do with the cut parameters as long as the table is capable of the speeds.

It's all about the plasma unit. Most plasma units have published charts for recommended pierce height, cut height (cut gap), feedrate and tip volts for different thicknesses of material using different tips and current. You follow those charts. Since the numbers vary considerably from one brand (or even model) to another we can't give anything that is more than a wild guess.

If you can't find a chart for your plasma you will just have to run a series of tests and make your own. Most mfg's have manuals in the web.

[phillysteak527]

The table is equipped with a Spectrum 3080 and ICE-80CX torch. I checked the manual and there was a chart. according to the chart i should run it at 110 IPM at 80 amps. if i wanted to run it at a lower amperage could i lets say run it at 55 IMP at 40 amps? or does the quantity not scale in such a way.