Hi All, I am a Technology Education teacher and at school we are going to be building a metal sculpture for the front of our school building. We have a 4x4 Torchmate CNC Plasma cutter with a Hypertherm PowerMax 65. We are going to be cutting 1/2in 304 stainless steel pieces out of plate for the sculpture. This is a material that we have not cut on our unit before and I am looking for any advice, suggestions, recommendations... speeds, consumables etc... that anyone has found useful or is willing to share their experiences. We are going to be doing lots of practicing but value any suggestions to consider as our starting point. Thank you in advance.
I never cut stainless that thick, mostly 14g. Here is what I have noticed. SS likes to be cut hot, fast and close work distance Smoke is nasty. Cutting underwater really helps the back side in addition to catching smoke I would like to see your pics when done.
Get a high pressure regulator and pump Nitrogen into your HT instead of compressed air. Buttery cut finish on that SS.
