My old magazine has an interesting article this month on using a plasma cutter for pretty delicate automobile patch-panel work. Maybe I missed it, but I've never seen a plasma cutter used this way before, cutting around spot welds and so on.
And I'd love to be able to paint flames like the ones on this old Firebird.
Cutting holes and lines and cut outs is common work. I have a 50' leather covered lead on my plasma torch just for doing that work outside the shop. Gouging and plug welding is possible. In the hands of someone that uses it often, it becomes an extension of their hands.
I have cut many a car part or barbecue pit fix on trailers that can't come into my shop. Now I can barely get into it myself. To many trucks bringing stuff to store.
Mart> My old magazine has an interesting article this month on using a
Have you ever seen someone gouge through one layer of sheet steel at a spot weld, surrounding the weld without burning through the second layer?
I haven't seen that kind of precision with plasma, and I've seen many plasma-cutting operations in fabrication work. That's why I thought the article was interesting.
Ed Huntress
I don't do sheet stack up but the gouge tip heats metal and it isn't a cutting tip like normally used in cutting through steel.
Gouge is a wide area blow out metal and limiting the current and controlling the angle one could cut through floorboards and not the frame.
Gouge is a wide beam of hot ions and it takes off layers of a single sheet level after level before melting through.
One doesn't use the plasma cutting tips or cutting noses. My gouge nose has a 1/4" wide hole in it.
Mart> >
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