Does anyone use one of these? I am looking around but can't seem to find one.I just bought a parker plasma , and am wondering what everyone does for straight edge ,as well as for circles. Thanks
Freehand circles, at the shop I worked at in NY we had a homemade contraption that had an adjustable center point that rested in a prick punch you made and then you just cut a circle. The other end had a narrow piece of tube that the ID was a little bigger than the OD of the tip with a thumb screw.
Long tips - 3/8" x 1" 4' piece of aluminum (I'll get you one of these, we have tons)
Short tips - 1/8" x 1" guide
I use a framing square for strait lines. And circles good luck. I think you could use cardboard and cut your circle a little bigger and use it as a guide. I am starting to collect parts for a CNC table so I hope that takes care of my problems.
I used to do that too, but no matter how much you try to pay attention. Somebody is going to distract you and when you look back down, you've wandered off on the framing square and its got a squiggly worm burn in it.
I like to cut as fast as humanly possible, so I like a tall guide so I can float the tip easier without worrying about side pressure.
Oh and those little orange handled spring clamps for holding the straight edge. Usually just use one on one end and my spare hand on the other.
Circles aren't too bad if you make yourself a nice easy to see line. Then cup your spare hand around the hand holding the gun and use your elbow to pivot with your forearm resting on the steel. Philip, before you go spending $185 which I don't think you would anyways. I'll help you make a $10 circle kit like the one I described above, basically the same thing just not all fancied up.
You pretty much can use anything as a streight edge as long as it's a non-conductive material. We normally use a wooden yard stick. For templets, we have use pressboard. Same material as peg board, but no holes. We just had a guy in here that needed backup lights in his chrome bumper and we used a piece of heavy duty cardboard. It burned alittle, but it gave us what we needed.
Am I getting lucky by using an aluminum guide? When I bought the unit, you told me about it being transference or non transference, can't remember which. My cuts are straight and I don't go thru tips fast at all so I've kept doing it.
For circles get a HF magnetic base for a dial indicator, add a mounting arm for your plasma torch. Or clamp the torch stationary and use a lazy susan to turn the work piece.
One of the Rockwell axle builds or DIY Beadlock threads had some good ideas for cutting circles.
Yes. That would be correct. Do you actually touch the tip to the metal or do you pull it back and kinda hover over it? For optimum cutting preformance, you really want to hold it off the work piece about a 1/16 to an 1/8 of an inch.
In these photos, the machine is off and I'm not cutting. Just a referance to how I position my hands while starting and cutting with our torch.
Starting the plasma by touching the work piece.
Then while cutting, holding the tip about 1/16" to 1/8" above the work piece.
It goes anywhere from touching the piece to floating a 1/16 off. I always make sure its angled back so any slag etc doesn't build up and get drug over.
What I'd like to do is get a nice piece wood then trim a step down on it for the bottom of the porcelain cup to rest on and the side of the tip to rest against. We had a piece of extruded aluminum like this we used for the Lincoln I learned on in NY. Kept the tip the perfect distance off the steel and made a nice straight cut.
that is weird. I have used a metal ruler as my straight edge ever since I bought my first plasma, and I have never had problems like you describe. More importantly, hypertherm sells tips that are designed to be draged across the work piece and they work perfectly, last a long time, and dont have any problems like described above, so I dont see how a metal ruler on the side of the torch is any differnt than dragging the tip on the piece, which is how it is designed to work.
Then it's not just me. I use the drag tips on my cutmaster 38 and I've never had a problem dragging them on the material I'm cutting or against a piece of barstock.
Maybe the Thermal Dynamics behave differently than the parker cutters?
BTW, what is the white plastic looking thing sticking out the back of the tip laying on it's side?
I usually just freehand it but if I am going to be doing more then one or two, or want minimal clean up work, I cut a pattern out of press board or cardboard. Whenever I am at Home Depot I look in the cut off bin for scraps thick enough to run the tip along with the cup resting on the top of it at the correct cut height and it works great.
Just don't expect the cardboard patterns to last all that long...
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Pirate 4x4
18.7M posts
366.4K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to custom off-road vehicle owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about trail reports, builds, performance, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, fabrication, drivetrain, and more!