I was figuring Id make some xmas presents of some neat steel art.. I
bght 1/16" mild steel and cut four blanks and clamped themn together.
Well after i cut out the shapes the dang pieces are now welded
together..Im gonna hafta get the dang grinder and grind the edges to
make em come apart.

Im using a very old plasma cutter,16 yrs old, and thght it wld do
alright..Shoot.

Well i ordrerd a new Hypertherm 600. Shld be here nest week.

Maybe I need to place spacers betwen the blanks.

Any ideas of this problems sports fans??

BR

Is the plasma cutter 16 years-old, or are you?

You do understand how a plasma cutter functions, don't you?

Unless you go to some very thick spacers, say 1/4", I really don't
believe that they are going to help very much, in several ways.

Harry C.

I used one abt 3 yrs ago to cut 2 kegs. thats all. I guess i dont
understand how it works.

However, i am not going abandon my idea to cut out several pieces at
once.

I have not heard of people successfully cutting out multiple pieces with
a plasma cutter. I think that you can do it with a waterjet. ;-)

Usually people use templates with their plasma cutter, and then cut the
pieces out one at a time.

Richard


wrote:

I was figuring Id make some xmas presents of some neat steel art.. I
bght 1/16" mild steel and cut four blanks and clamped themn together.
Well after i cut out the shapes the dang pieces are now welded
together..Im gonna hafta get the dang grinder and grind the edges to
make em come apart.

Im using a very old plasma cutter,16 yrs old, and thght it wld do
alright..Shoot.

Well i ordrerd a new Hypertherm 600. Shld be here nest week.

Maybe I need to place spacers betwen the blanks.

Any ideas of this problems sports fans??

BR



--
http://www.fergusonsculpture.com
Sculptures in copper and other metals

I tried cutting multiple layers of Aluminum once. Not going to try that
again. Just could not get a clean edge on the bottom one.
Is your incoming gas pressure high enough? You may ot be clearing the
material quickly enough before it solidifies.
Michelle

wrote:

I was figuring Id make some xmas presents of some neat steel art.. I
bght 1/16" mild steel and cut four blanks and clamped themn together.
Well after i cut out the shapes the dang pieces are now welded
together..Im gonna hafta get the dang grinder and grind the edges to
make em come apart.

Im using a very old plasma cutter,16 yrs old, and thght it wld do
alright..Shoot.

Well i ordrerd a new Hypertherm 600. Shld be here nest week.

Maybe I need to place spacers betwen the blanks.

Any ideas of this problems sports fans??

BR

"Richard Ferguson" wrote in message
...
I have not heard of people successfully cutting out multiple pieces with a
plasma cutter. I think that you can do it with a waterjet. ;-)

Usually people use templates with their plasma cutter, and then cut the
pieces out one at a time.

Richard

I think you could cut multiple pieces if you had your cut speed right on the
gnat's ass but cutting patterns by hand I am sure would preclude this.
Steve

On 2 Dec 2005 16:33:23 -0800, wrote:

Well after i cut out the shapes the dang pieces are now welded
together.

They're only welded by the slag. This is pretty weak, so splitting them
with a wide, fine chisel ought to be easy.

For multiple pieces with a plasma cutter you're usually best making one
or more templates (thin wood or MDF) and doing them separately.

The template idea is an excellent one and i plan to make one before my
new Hypertherm600 arrives. Whopeeeeee

I had to run the old Miller Spectrum on high to cut thru the 4 pieces
of 1/16" steel. Sometimes i went too fast and had to go back over the
orig cuts. I did grind much of the edges but the 4 pieces are still
melted together. Several places are loose. Havent tried the peanut
grinder yet. Maybe the Hypertherm600 wld lightly burn that away...OW
its a 1/4" thick Raven.

I cld just weld the edges and grind smooth and paint as is. Keep it for
myself to remind me of my superior intelligence..G No paint wld be
better for that..

Kinda like the glove i sliced thru with my band mill..Whew that was
close..I pinned it up so I cld see it every day after that...

Tanks for help. Great site..

On 2 Dec 2005 16:33:23 -0800, wrote:

I was figuring Id make some xmas presents of some neat steel art.. I
bght 1/16" mild steel and cut four blanks and clamped themn together.
Well after i cut out the shapes the dang pieces are now welded
together..Im gonna hafta get the dang grinder and grind the edges to
make em come apart.

Im using a very old plasma cutter,16 yrs old, and thght it wld do
alright..Shoot.

Well i ordrerd a new Hypertherm 600. Shld be here nest week.

Maybe I need to place spacers betwen the blanks.

Any ideas of this problems sports fans??

First of all, it is entirely possible to pull this off, but there are
a few caveats:

1) 4 pieces is too many. I wouldn't go beyond three.
2) You'll need a plasma cutter with more power. The PowerMax 600 is
a good machine and will be a good start. We have one at the shop and
it will take limitless abuse. However, once you begin going through
material thicker than about 1/4" you really have to s-l-o-w d-o-w-n.
3) Expect that if you stack three pieces, the edges on the top and
bottom will be rough and the one in the center should be very clean.
4) This assumes you are moving at the right speed. Too fast and you
won't cut through all three sheets. Too slow and you'll be WELDING
them as you go.

Finally, do NOT place spacers. That will worsen your problem.

John P.

On Sat, 03 Dec 2005 02:37:01 GMT, Michelle P
wrote:

Is your incoming gas pressure high enough? You may ot be clearing the
material quickly enough before it solidifies.

Actually, the gas pressure should have little or no effect. The gas,
in this case compressed shop air, is only serving to cool the torch
tip.

The way the machine operates is that it creates a ~45,000 degree arc
which vaporizes the metal it comes in contact with. The air supply is
simply keeping the torch tip cool or it would burn out instantly.

The reason you have to keep the torch tip in motion all the time is
that once the arc has pierced the material, it is still searching for
the nearest metal to keep the arc going. If you continue to hold it
in one place, that arc starts moving to the side as the hole becomes
larger and this causes that 45,000 degree plasma stream to begin to
come sideways out of the torch tip. This will burn up the tip almost
instantaneously by taking your original round hole and turning it into
a nice sideways slit. There goes $10...

John P.

On Sat, 03 Dec 2005 13:35:06 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

On 2 Dec 2005 16:33:23 -0800, wrote:

Well after i cut out the shapes the dang pieces are now welded
together.

They're only welded by the slag. This is pretty weak, so splitting them
with a wide, fine chisel ought to be easy.

It is actually possible that the cut speed was too slow and / or the
torch lacked the power to pierce 4 layers completely causing the
material to actually weld...

John P.