whitejeeptj
04-21-2009, 10:50 AM
I'll start off by saying this is the first time I have used a plasma. I bought this for my jeep addiction as I found myself doing more projects that caused me to hate my 4" angle grinder as a cutter.
Right out of the box I tried cutting some 3/16" plate and made a mess for about 5 minutes, then I sort of got the hang of it and cut the plate like butter with nice clean cuts. I went on to cut out some brackets from the 3/16" plate that involved some curved cuts and I was getting better. After this I cut off some stock axle brackets which were 1/8" thick at the welds while under the jeep in awkward positions.........these cuts came out much better than I expected and went extremely quick. I cut out some sway bar extensions from 1" wide 1/4" thick strip and while it made quick work of cutting the cut was not as clean as the 3/16".........still I was happy with its performance. I then tried some 1/4" plate that I needed some gussets from and lets just say I had some trouble. I maxed out the amps made sure the psi was at 70 and went slow to finally get them cut out, although they did require a bit of grinding. Maybe I shoud have changed the consumables before cutting the 1/4" plate because I had a lot of cutting on the original set.
All the plate I cut was cleaned with a flap disc before cutting and the 40d was wired up at 220. So, was my experience typical at 1/4" or is my in-experience with plasma what is making the 1/4" cut.......well, not good?
Right out of the box I tried cutting some 3/16" plate and made a mess for about 5 minutes, then I sort of got the hang of it and cut the plate like butter with nice clean cuts. I went on to cut out some brackets from the 3/16" plate that involved some curved cuts and I was getting better. After this I cut off some stock axle brackets which were 1/8" thick at the welds while under the jeep in awkward positions.........these cuts came out much better than I expected and went extremely quick. I cut out some sway bar extensions from 1" wide 1/4" thick strip and while it made quick work of cutting the cut was not as clean as the 3/16".........still I was happy with its performance. I then tried some 1/4" plate that I needed some gussets from and lets just say I had some trouble. I maxed out the amps made sure the psi was at 70 and went slow to finally get them cut out, although they did require a bit of grinding. Maybe I shoud have changed the consumables before cutting the 1/4" plate because I had a lot of cutting on the original set.
All the plate I cut was cleaned with a flap disc before cutting and the 40d was wired up at 220. So, was my experience typical at 1/4" or is my in-experience with plasma what is making the 1/4" cut.......well, not good?