Is there anything special that I should be aware of when cutting stainless on a 4x4 machine, especially when it comes to the automatic height control? I went to cut a piece yesterday and the torch come down and started to cut then broke away and was still cutting until I hit stop. The machine acted like it couldn't sense the material. Never had a problem like this on mild steel.
I would recommend running a line speed test to get the proper cutting speed. Pending on the machine you have then make sure you run a voltage test to verify the voltage you are getting with the speed you are running.
I'm having a hell of a time too trying to cut nice and neat bottle openers for my wedding. The problem I've seen is the work height for 10g stainless is .02" and the torch constantly dives into the material. Ive tried +/- 25% in speed and voltage and it doesn't seem to matter much. The one thing ive noticed is my water table slats are a bit chewed up so I place a 24"x24" slab of 1/2" that had a 10" hole cute our of the center and that seemed to have held the stainless a little flatter and it only dove in once per cut file. Also I normally run a magnetic ground block, but I switched back to a clamp for stainless...
Pending on which plasma power supply you have, get a Nitrogen bottle with a high pressure regulator and use that instead of compressed air. You will get better looking cuts on your stainless. Next, is to lower the water about .75" - 1." . Run a line speed test to determine the proper feed rate for the material and amperage that you are cutting. .02 seems really low for a cut height. verify the numbers with your cut charts. Then I will run a sample piece in MANUAL mode. While it is running, watch what the CURRENT VOLTAGE is reading at. Once the cut is done, you will average that CURRENT VOLTAGE number and add 2 to it. That will become your SET VOLTAGE for that material, feed rate, and amperage. This should get you getting decent cuts.
