You will use a little more power and slow it down a little. Don't forget to drain the water... Overall Aluminum cuts pretty good.
Any pics of past projects? All the stuff I read says plasma is not a good option. I did see the water "hazard" warning.
This is just to show you the Aluminum when it cuts. Like I said it is not "milled" but overall still a workable product pending on your finished items. To me aluminum looks like it is "sand blasted" after it is cut as the aluminum dust gets all over the place and the edges are not super smooth.
We have cut aluminum occasionally, nothing over 1/4" though. It cuts great, we use fans to dissipate the build up of gasses and drain the water. Occasionally we get some dross build up, but a change of consumables fixed that.
Ah yes, pesky hydrogen, ya, drain the water before cutting so you don't end up with a mini hindenburg in your shop. Sorry to hear DLE.
how far down should the water be from the material to prevent this from happening? or is it best to not even have water in the table at the time?
I have had good luck running the water 1.5-2" below the part, still makes me nervous though. If I have many parts from aluminum, I drain the table completely. I just bring in extra fans so I do not have to breath the smoke and dust.
On the tables that have just the water pan(growth series, 4400,4800, etc.) don't have the issue so much as the TMX does, since it has the dual chamber, it can trap the gas in the lower tank. With the other tables, since they dont have lower tanks to trap it they dont have the issue as much, but i would still suggest running without or at least very little water, since the material itself can trap the gas underneath and allow for some build up. The gas would eventually dissipate from under the material over time since it still has a means to escape.
We ran water in ours for a few years without incident. Always cycled the water up and down from the chamber a few times after each run of aluminum parts. Drained and cleaned the table every 4-6 months. Then, it exploded. Pretty costly. Now we just farm out our aluminum parts to a laser shop.
