1-1/2 inch base plates

[arnegrant]

Fun to use the equipment to its limits, these 1.5 inch thick plates are about as thick as I like to go.

Stack of base plates

Hard on the slats cutting that slow

Here's a trick that helps keep the plates square, tack weld them in place

[Deezl Smoke]

Nice. The wider the kerf, the more important this tip becomes.

[adbuch]

Nice!! I had not seen that technique before. How bad to they warp if you don't tack them together?

David

[arnegrant]

In plan view they move the full width of the kerf, so around 1/8" off in plan.

Then up and down on the cut it's hard to quantify as it's however much the edge warps additive to how much the plate lifts or falls, but 0 to 1/4 inch is common.

Thick stuff needs to be babysat while cutting for sure or it looks pretty gnarly when done, certainly doesn't meet our 1/16 shop tolerance if the process is just left to run.

[adbuch]

Thanks for the explanation.
David

[arnegrant]

I took a picture of one where I tried one tack a side instead of two. I also changed consumables after this, but there is no auto torch height control running this slow so its not from the torch moving, just the plate and piece flexing around from what I know

Bottom of plate, one tack each side

Cut of plate 1 tacks each side (moved around)

Edge of plate 1 tack each side (bad)

Cut of plate 2 tacks each side (good)

[Jason@bc]

That's some pretty beefy stuff there! I have done 1'' with my Hypertherm 85 and yes it has to be babysat quite a bit.

[sonbakler]

Impressive cuts and great tip about tacking the drops in place. Brilliant! Already learned something this week

[tinspark]

Thanks for the share! Nice work on the way to control the expansion..

[SegoMan DeSigns]

What plasma box are you running? Looks like an edge start from the vid.

The Hyp 105 is rated at a production pierce up to 7/8" but you can delay the time and do 1" with no problems:

1" / production pierce / water all the way to the bottom of the metal / no welding:

1-1/4" / edge start / water all the way to the bottom of the metal / no welding:

I have seen some shops run water on the plate to prevent warping as well.

[arnegrant]

Nice cuts.

This table has a thermal dynamics A120.

These were cut edge start at machine set at 100 amps with 80 amp consumables, single phase input power (I think the tables are set about 20 amps high for my power source).

I cut most plates with 60 amp consumables with the machine set at 80 amps and the 60 amp book cut speed tables are pretty close with my input power.

I don't like to go over 100 amps, burns up consumables pretty fast.

Higher water levels do seem to help with consumable life and heat input from what I can tell.

Good luck