Learn CNC Plasma Cut Quality with Jim Colt

In this episode, Jim Colt, an industry expert from Hypertherm, gives some tips and tricks regarding plasma cut quality. Visit www.maverickcnc.com/ for more information on all of our plasma cutting tables.
Are you having issues with dross when you cut? Jim explains why you might be experiencing these issues and helps troubleshoot how to eliminate dross on your future CNC Plasma cuts.
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Video description :
Jim Colt, from Hypertherm here. Just wanted to talk a little about different cut quality - things to look for with cut quality and just a couple of common things. We could talk about cut quality and fixes for cut quality all day, there are a lot of different parameters for plasma cutting. When you get the right machine, the plasma cutter and the right CNC cutting table - generally your going to have files in the background that have all of the parameters set. So basically you, the operator has to tell it if your cutting half inch steel or quarter inch steel, the machine will help you choose the right parameters to get everything right.
You don’t cut half inch steel the same way you cut quarter inch steel - different feed rates, different amperage. A lot of different factors apply so I’m just going to look at one example here. Here’s a couple of cuts - they are different materials but to use them as an example I can. This sample on this side was cut, you can see there’s some pretty heavy dross on the back of this. Some people with plasma cutters have been cutting drossy parts like that for 10 years and think that’s the way plasma’s cut. If you look at this other sample, this also is an untouched cut but it was cut correctly, at the correct speed, at the correct amperage and so fourth.
And while there are a couple little beads of dross and dross I might say is the resolidified metal on the back of the cut. This one doesn’t have much, this one has a lot. Dross is something that we all want to avoid because I would have to spend a couple of minutes chipping that dross off, maybe hitting it with a grinder to clean it up. So what’s the difference between these two cuts assuming they are the same thickness and the same part?
Typically when you see dross like that, it simply means that your cutting too slow or with too much power level or perhaps the height control was set at too high of a cut height. This one, just from my experience, I would say just speeding up the cut speed on this one would probably get rid of the dross - that’s what we normally run into. So there are a few little tips like that. There some good sources to get help with that. Go to the machine manufacturers service group and say “yeah I’m getting ugly cuts, what do I do?” Or go to Hypertherm, the manufacturer of the plasma and the tech service department can also help you fine tune the cut quality.
Maybe before you do that, open up the manual because there are a number of pages in the operators manual that do give you, they’ll give you some pictures of some typical cut quality issues and the easy fix, sometimes just the opposite of what you think it’s going to be will solve the problem for you. That’s the quick one, once again any questions you have, we’d be more than happy to work with you and help you out, help you solve them. Thank you.

[@erck815]

.5 to 3/16 or .125.. what pressure your air? Did you add gas assist? When you programmed this part, did you use different macros for different contours?