Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: plasma cutting table

dave_ace_me wrote:

> about how far does the plasma extend from the tip of the cutter ?

That depends on many things. The thickness your cutting, the air settings and your amperage. I'm not sure I have it figured out. I did buy a regular "Machine Torch" head for mine machine and this has
a holder with a small knob and a rack and pinion drive to move the head up and down. I generally start cutting and then manually drop or raise until it "feels" good................... I "start" at the
thickness of the metal I am cutting when in the 1/8" thick area...............

> I was thinking that if it is anything like a cutting torch, it will
> cut right through the table below it if the table is in good contact
> with the part being cut.
>
> I have seen a wavy support bed on some plasma cuting tables and
> thought that is to prevent a straight line cut from splitting the
> table in two.

I picked up quite a few feet of "catwalk" from an old plant. This is the 1/8" band iron set up on edge spaced apart by about a half inch or so. I fI used the "Pyramid" method, my parts would fall thru
all the time. They stay prety flat now. When the Catwalk is burned up too bad, I'll just toss it and wack off another hunk and stick it on the machine.

Some guys, and I would probably do this when I run out of catwalk, Just drop in some 1/8" x 2"-3" flat bar, vertically in slots on each end or side of the machine. Space them tighter together at 0,0
because this is generally where you cut the small stuff. When burned up to badly to work right replace them.

Chris L