Torchmate X 10'x20' cutting 4" plate in Bogota, Colombia

[Torchmate]

Here are a few pictures I got today from our distributor Andres down in Bogota, Colombia. That is a 10'x20' Torchmate X with an oxy-fuel torch cutting 4" thick mild steel. Andres handles all of our sales, installations and support in Central America. I have no idea what they are using those pieces for, but thought you guys might get a kick out of the pic's.

[jduck]

Badass!

[spidr]

So what's the accuracy of oxy act through 4" plate?

[Sroufe7]

That is wicked! Never seen such a nice cut from fuel...

[affende]

Originally Posted by spidr

So what's the accuracy of oxy act through 4" plate?

we do some work with plate that thick on a cantilever OA torch ...


the accuracy is better than you would think, but worse than you would like. thats the best way i can put it.

cuts like that are 99% setup and 1% luck. i cant make a decent cut on plate like that. our torcj guy can make some damn good cuts though.

[jeeperjer]

Wow, that's a chunk of steel.

[waynehartwig]

That's just !

[Torchmate]

Working with thick plate is extremely challenging. You are pouring so much heat into the material. We sell a lot of dual torch setups as well because when you are trying to cut a long piece, you end up having to cut both sides at the same time. Otherwise the material will walk as you free up one side then the other. We have a couple of crane manufacturers that have to cut long strips of thick plate. You have to be smarter than the plate, which ends up being pretty difficult at times. Practice, practice, practice - like anything else I guess.

I remember another customer that cut 2' (that is two foot) thick plate with an oxy-propane setup on his Torchmate machine. Just getting the machine to go slow enough for that is tough. My jaw hit the floor when I heard that one. I have a hard time grasping how you even manipulate chunks of material like that. This was back before emailing pictures was as easy as it is, so I never was actually able to see it.

[Greatlakeoffroad]

Another tip is to use nails to wedge in the cut to keep it from walking as you cut (if you only have a single headed torch) Leave the nails in the gap cut by the plasma til the plate has cooled some and then remove. You would be surprised how well this works.

Originally Posted by Torchmate

Working with thick plate is extremely challenging. You are pouring so much heat into the material. We sell a lot of dual torch setups as well because when you are trying to cut a long piece, you end up having to cut both sides at the same time. Otherwise the material will walk as you free up one side then the other. We have a couple of crane manufacturers that have to cut long strips of thick plate. You have to be smarter than the plate, which ends up being pretty difficult at times. Practice, practice, practice - like anything else I guess.

I remember another customer that cut 2' (that is two foot) thick plate with an oxy-propane setup on his Torchmate machine. Just getting the machine to go slow enough for that is tough. My jaw hit the floor when I heard that one. I have a hard time grasping how you even manipulate chunks of material like that. This was back before emailing pictures was as easy as it is, so I never was actually able to see it.

[Kamikaze]

I cut lots of plate between 1" and 10" at work. I started running the water table all the way up, submerging the bottom 2" of the plate, and cutting anything between 1" and 2" completely submerged. That got rid of practically all of our plate walking.

I got some funny looks from the guys when I would throw a 2" plate up there and cover it with water..... it doesn't seem like it would work.

[Torchmate]

Originally Posted by Kamikaze

I cut lots of plate between 1" and 10" at work. I started running the water table all the way up, submerging the bottom 2" of the plate, and cutting anything between 1" and 2" completely submerged. That got rid of practically all of our plate walking.

I got some funny looks from the guys when I would throw a 2" plate up there and cover it with water..... it doesn't seem like it would work.

Most people don't realize that oxy-fuel cutting is a chemical process. It makes sense that as long as enough preheat is still making its way ahead of the torch, the chemical reaction will keep going. I can see where it would help keep the rest of the plate cooler so that it won't walk. Now you have me wanting to try it in our shop. I want to try the nail thing that Greatlakeoffroad suggested too. It seems like there is an art to cutting that thick plate well.

[Kamikaze]

Originally Posted by Torchmate

Most people don't realize that oxy-fuel cutting is a chemical process. It makes sense that as long as enough preheat is still making its way ahead of the torch, the chemical reaction will keep going. I can see where it would help keep the rest of the plate cooler so that it won't walk. Now you have me wanting to try it in our shop. I want to try the nail thing that Greatlakeoffroad suggested too. It seems like there is an art to cutting that thick plate well.

It took a good year or two before I got good a cutting the heavy stuff. It is more by feel than anything. If you do decide to cut with the water up, I have found that bumping up the cutting oxygen pressure bu a good 20-30 psi over the recommended keeps the slag off the bottom. The big thing with heavy plate is that slower and hotter isn't always better. Its crazy the difference .1 IPM can make on a cut, and a few psi here or there.

[Greatlakeoffroad]

6D or 8D nails depending on the mtl being cut usually works pretty good, we keep a bag or two handy. I have also cut long (20') 3/16" AR strips (6" wide) and actually used small strips of steel and tack welded them together after the cut as we were working across a sheet of steel. It kept the sheet rigid and kept the walking to a min. down side to this is having to knock off the tabs w/ a hammer and grind the tack off smooth again. But it worked and saved the high dollar plate.

[Speedy2222]

that is an awesome cut. I remember where i use to work they had a torchmate and were trying to cut 1" plate with the oxy/acet torch and they had slag dripping off of them and were very rough, i was always telling the owner he was doing it wrong but he insisted that that's how an oxy finish should be. I can now prove him wrong.

[Kamikaze]

Yep, if you know what you are doing you can get a finish like that on 10" plate. It is a delicate balance of fuel pressure, cutting pressure, and fead rate.

[bigtoy302]

Nice. I Just got done machining a piece at work that was oxy cut from 14" a36 48" in diameter.

[Kamikaze]

I had to cut some 3.5" plate today and happened to have my camera handy. Figured I would shoot some video and snap a few pictures. You can see how much the water keeps the part from walking in the pictures. I did screw up on the hole, I thought I chipped enough of the slag out of the way from the pierce but I missed it by a hair and it stopped the cut......

YouTube - cutting 3.5" plate with water

[Kamikaze]

A little off topic but we had a tour come through so I put together a real quick demo with our robotic welder. I wish I would have had a few hours to really show out with it but I did the best I could with the few minutes I had.

YouTube - robot welder demo

[Torchmate]

I spent some time talking to Andres yesterday. I showed him Pirate and this thread. He said that once they originally got the machine setup, he said let's run a sample. They brought over a 4" thick slab that wieghed like 6000kg (over 13,000lbs). He said, "you want to test with that?". They said, "We have parts to cut, let's go". Talk about being put under the gun. No problems, but I know he was sweating on that first cut.