How close to flush will a plasma cut?

[shaley]

I need to cut the ears off a loder bucket so I can weld on a Quick tach plate.
Wlll a plasma torch cut almost flush or will I have a lot of grinding.

 

[Kenfranklinl]

The plasma is going to give you a nice clean cut if you have a steady hand. on my miller the cutting tip has about 3\16 in to the outside of the insulator so with a little angle you can get pritty close to a 90 deg corner to cut.

 

[Willl]

I always leave a little for the grinder to finish off to final grade/surface.

And I'd rather use the acetylene cutting torch over the plasma for something like this.

 

[crazyal]

You can get pretty close and if you gouge the weld, grind away any slag and fill in any steel that you may have cut. But the torch tip needs to be maybe 1/4" away at most from the steel (each unit is a little different) so you're not going to be able to slice it off flush with the steel.

Another way would be to cut the ear off parallel to the bucket. This will leave a 1/2" or so tab sticking out. You then can gouge the tab to remove most of it and then finish it off with a grinder.

 

[yomax4]

If it is fairly clean you can lop it off with your torch. Or turn your plasma down to 40 amps and slowly cut it off. Not much of a chore at all. fun actually.:thumbsup:

 

[rjmack]

can you reach it with a 5" zipcut?

 

[Skyco]

Whats a zipcut?

Anyway my plasma cutter with the Trafimet torch won't get real close to something like the OP described.
I do have a tip for my Smith torch like the pic below that will cut flush, got it new off eBay for cheap-

 

[rjmack]

Whats a zipcut?

5" Metal Zip Cut - Tools - Northland Construction Supplies

most welding supplies carry them, they are often a better choice than either torch or plasma... much cleaner cut, virtually no thermal distortion. like any abrasive, you have to protect against the spark trail embedding into paint.

careful with your fingers and always use eye and (if possible) face protection.

edit; always think in terms of the cutting plane when using these... keeping things flat is important, you only want to cut with the outside edge of the wheel... these are NOT grinding discs.

 

[shaley]

Thanks for all the replies. I did the outside ears a year ago and left the inside ears as a stiffener. Now I have a QT loader so the other ears need to go. I don't recall this being fun. I used a torch, but I suck with a torch. I thought maybe a plasma might make it less painful. After looking a the pic again the fillets look small so maybe a cutting disc is the way to go as rjmack mentioned. I think I have some for my electric grinder.

 

[Shield Arc]

My Hypertherm 1250 has a scarfing mode, I can flush things off with as much as a 3-inch long arc, with 80-PSI. Very little grinding when done flushing objects off.

 

[Skyco]

5" Metal Zip Cut - Tools - Northland Construction Supplies

most welding supplies carry them, they are often a better choice than either torch or plasma... much cleaner cut, virtually no thermal distortion. like any abrasive, you have to protect against the spark trail embedding into paint.

careful with your fingers and always use eye and (if possible) face protection.

edit; always think in terms of the cutting plane when using these... keeping things flat is important, you only want to cut with the outside edge of the wheel... these are NOT grinding discs.

Gotcha! I have some thin cut off wheels that appear similar, just never heard the term zipcut before. BTW the linked description puzzled me a bit how an almost 1/2 inch thick wheel, .45" it said, could be good for cutting, turns out looking elsewhere that was supposed to be .045", they had a typo

 

[crazyal]

Thanks for all the replies. I did the outside ears a year ago and left the inside ears as a stiffener. Now I have a QT loader so the other ears need to go. I don't recall this being fun. I used a torch, but I suck with a torch. I thought maybe a plasma might make it less painful. After looking a the pic again the fillets look small so maybe a cutting disc is the way to go as rjmack mentioned. I think I have some for my electric grinder.

A plasma cutter I think is easier to use than a torch if you're not use to using either. But if you don't own a plasma cutter I wouldn't buy one unless you have use for one to do multiple jobs or or future plans. For a couple of bucks each you can buy a lot of cut off wheels for the cost of a plasma cutter.

 

[rjmack]

For a couple of bucks each you can buy a lot of cut off wheels for the cost of a plasma cutter.

thats a good point. i paid $2200.00 for my plasma cutter, used it on one job (cutting up a truck cab) and though it was an excellent tool for that job, it has been pretty well useless for steel fabrication... i have never been able to come anywhere near torch quality cutting with my plasma.
i can see using them in bodywork or fabbing light guage steel (or stainless and aluminum) but that's about it.

having said that, i had much better luck cutting checkerplate aluminum with a jigsaw... less thermal distortion than plasma.

 

[jamesa]

thats a good point. i paid $2200.00 for my plasma cutter, used it on one job (cutting up a truck cab) and though it was an excellent tool for that job, it has been pretty well useless for steel fabrication... i have never been able to come anywhere near torch quality cutting with my plasma.
i can see using them in bodywork or fabbing light guage steel (or stainless and aluminum) but that's about it.

having said that, i had much better luck cutting checkerplate aluminum with a jigsaw... less thermal distortion than plasma.

your doing something wrong then plasma makes a very clean cut. post up some pics.

 

[yomax4]

No use for Plasma in the Metal Fab World? Plasma " Should " cut as well as a saw with more accuracy than a cut off wheel. You can turn it up or down. Man..What Brand are you using??

 

[grsthegreat]

i have a hypertherm 1000 and i cut aluminum checkerplate all the time. does a great job and no distortion.

MInd you mines on a cnc table moving at a fast clip. maybe your moving too slow.

I get very nice percision in metal fab work. This is in some 3/16 and 1/4" stock

 

[RPW]

I've use my plasma on everything from think aluminum to 1/2 thick steel and it cuts very cleanly. You DO need to have a supply of clean DRY air and good clean tips. I've found that if I don't keep my air dry it will eat my tips and then I'll slag from h@ll.

 

[J_J]

Has anyone seen or used this plasma machine?

Multiplaz. Welding, Cutting, Soldering, Brazing...

 

[Shield Arc]

Here's some nifty cutting my brother-n-law did.

 

[yomax4]

Has anyone seen or used this plasma machine?

Multiplaz. Welding, Cutting, Soldering, Brazing...

I saw the early vesion of this at an AWS/Fabtech show in the late 90's.Since then there has been several versions that say they can tig, braze and cut. They kind of do but very slowly and not very efficiently. I know a guy who moved here from Russia and he had a version that Actually, ( believe it or not ) Ran on Vodka instead of water and alcohol. He wanted $1400.00 for them.