plasma cutter?

Grant, My new plasma cutter will cut thicker mild steel than stainless steel. And thicker stainless steel than aluminum. And thicker aluminum than copper. But it will still cut 3/4 aluminum. It will cut 3/4 steel at

10 ipm. But it will also hack off a chunk of 1 1/2 inch thick steel. And I mean hack. Not pretty. So I bet you can do the aluminum but it might not be as pretty. Or you can pre-heat the al. Works for tig. Eric

My understanding is, it will make very little difference what type of material you are cutting. There is relatively little heat involved with plasma cutting.

If anything, the electrical conductivity of the metal (or resistance) would have more of an effect. Aluminum and copper being better conductors (lower resistance) than steel or stainless, using MY theory, would cut better.

This is just my hypothesis, FWIW.

I have a plasma rig that is rated at 3/8 but I cut up to 3/4" stainless or aluminum but it is slow and not very pretty.

Steve

One thing to remember on Plasma cutters - nice and standard cut or diagonal wavy cut. The over sized metals (over normal rating) give diagonal wavy. If it was to be ground off it is just a little more work.

Consider longer drag time.

Consider doing what I did - put a metal clamp on my tig that had a battery charger clamp. Now the GND clamp really conducts. On light stuff, light clamps are just ok. When pushing the edge - better gnd really helps.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Grant Erw> When the spec says a plasma cutter can cut 3/8", does that mean it can

My experience is that aluminum will draw heat off and dissipate it much faster. Usually a plasma cutter will do about 60-75% in aluminum of what it will do in steel. Respectfully, Ron Moore

All the good plasma cutters are rated with three thicknesses: "neat cut", "ragged cut" and "sever". This is usually in steel and aluminium needs de-rating to maybe 75% of this. Copper is even worse.

If there is so little heat involved with plasma cutting - why does the metal turn all sorts of colors - Stainless to brown steel in blue and dripping steel. Oh - plasma is the temperature of the Sun - center IIRC. Metal sheets 4' wide bow when cut.

Different metals draw different currents. Copper and Al draw more current and spray it sideways away from the cut so more electrons are needed for the hole. Steel doesn't conduct well so most make the hole.

So resistivity is very important - but tons of heat. Al oxidizes into tufts.

One thing to remember - How does a water hose work - Big hole - lots of water but it has little range. Small hole (nozzle) goes a lot farther at higher pressure. And smaller yet - turns into a pressure washer -

So a fine cut kit can very likely do nicely. Also gouging heads get you closer and blows the metal sideways out of the slot.

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Steve wrote:

Unlikely. Temperature in the center of the sun is estimated to be

29,000,000 F. (that's 29 million degrees).

It is a very imprecise estimate, but a thousand+ of times more than any temperature that we observe on Earth.

i