Plasma cutters and instruction manuals

[wierdscience]

I was strolling through the owners manual for my rig the otherday and low and behold I caught a sentence that stood out.

"Use only non-metallic straight edges for maximum consumables life"

Huh?Okay the only non-metallic straight edged stuff I had that wouldn't burn easily was 1/4" tempered masonite.So I ripped up a few on the tablesaw and slicked the edges with some sand paper.

World of difference,I was getting decent life out of the tips before,now I believe it has tripled.Now that I think about it they do make sense.The nozzle orifice used to wear egg shaped or comma shaped and now looking at it the oblong or tail of the comma always pointed to the straight edge side.I can see where the arc would lean towards a metallic edge.

The edges even hold up well and once they do get burned up a little I just rip the edges off in the tablesaw and run it again.

Hodda thunk it?:o :)

[camdigger]

I started using particle board guides for my hypertherm 380 right off the bat because the consumable tip is just under 3/8" long and letting it ride along the 3/8" particle board gives a pretty good and consistent "arclength". The consumable tip is electrically live BTW, so the particle board fit that way.

It didn't hurt that I had a stack of particle board scraps from a major construction project. It's original purpose was underlay for sheet vinyl floor covering. The stack of offcuts and booboos has lasted 4 yrs now:o :rolleyes:

Editted P.S. The particle board is easy to make shapes out of for templates too, even made a quick and dirty circle cutter with a scrap....

and... The consumable tip (on mine) has an OD of 3/8" too, so the template/guide offset ends up at 3/16" to the CL of the 1/16" or so kerf.

[wierdscience]

Ya,I made some templates out of pine siding scraps for my Miller 375,they worked good.Cut about 300 3x6" oval perforations in some 8"C-perlins with it.

[Dawai]

ONE time use fishplate or gusset plate template can be cardboard. It blackens but works.

Rock and Roll on.. I had permenant templates for the tattoo machines and other tiny things I used to make regularly.. the first plasma cutter I used I had industrial monitor templates and pushbutton patterns. They had to fit within a 1/16th..

[macona]

I use micarta. Its heat resistant.