Some thoughts and some findings using PlasmaC

Geez, Test Pilot. That was deep dive from 30,000 ft!

I really think you need to upgrade your fighter jet so you can play with some 3/4" (oops I mean 19mm!)
I did a few cuts on 16mm but only on some bar stock, not a full sheet. I'll leave that to real fabricators like Stefan!
I will say a lot of the data is based on cutting similar thickness material. It is a bit different!

rodw wrote: Geez, Test Pilot. That was deep dive from 30,000 ft!

I really think you need to upgrade your fighter jet so you can play with some 3/4" (oops I mean 19mm!)
I did a few cuts on 16mm but only on some bar stock, not a full sheet. I'll leave that to real fabricators like Stefan!
I will say a lot of the data is based on cutting similar thickness material. It is a bit different!

I definitely agree, if you'd like to help by providing financial backing for my move from a PowerMax 65, to a Powermax 105, for testing purposes and the betterment of the group, of course, that might speed things along :laugh:.. Otherwise, the thought of loading a sheet that thick means I will also likely need a forklift lol.

I see that the 105 cut chart lists a pierce height of .24" for the 3/4" material. As a nifty test, I wonder if I could get a cutting arc from .24", and where the threshold of "too high to get a cutting arc" begins. Of course this would just be a data point for my particular hypertherm, but it would be neat to know anyways. I suspect I would be able to get an arc from over .5"

snowgoer540 wrote: I definitely agree, if you'd like to help by providing financial backing for my move from a PowerMax 65, to a Powermax 105, for testing purposes and the betterment of the group, of course, that might speed things along :laugh:.. Otherwise, the thought of loading a sheet that thick means I will also likely need a forklift lol.

I see that the 105 cut chart lists a pierce height of .24" for the 3/4" material. As a nifty test, I wonder if I could get a cutting arc from .24", and where the threshold of "too high to get a cutting arc" begins. Of course this would just be a data point for my particular hypertherm, but it would be neat to know anyways. I suspect I would be able to get an arc from over .5"

Sorry I priced one and it made my eyes water! I sold my Everlast and was plasmaless for a while. Then I moved out of home to a shop with 3 phase power so I was looking at buying a 65 amp one but then I found a brand new old stock Thermal Dynamics 120 amp machine for $5k which saved me about $3k. I just had a look 3/4" pierce height is 0.25" and 1.6 sec pierce delay. The 16mm I tried only took 0.7 sec pierce delay but the arc had burnt about half way through before the arcOK came on!

And I needed a forklift to load 1/4"!

phillc54 wrote:
Would it be better to allow motion as soon as the pierce delay has finished, it means that Z will move down to cut height when X/Y motion has begun:

Not sure but this might help with thicker materials as whenever the move starts on fast accelerating machines the arc has trouble keeping up a clean cut for a split second there and since that almost always happens on a bend or a lead in the arc will tend to keep that slope while cutting. This way moving the torch downwards might help put more air pressure at that part of the cut.

You can cut 3/4" Just fine with your pm65. If I clean cut 7/8" With my old 40 amp miller inverter machine, you can definitely cut 3/4" with your 65 amp machine. It may not be recommended:-) but it will do it just fine.

Tommy is correct. I believe that it is for thicker material. So that it can apply more air pressure and blow through thicker material. Think of it like cutting with an oxyacetylene torch. For thicker material, you can also change your type of lead in to "wiggle" in sheetcam. It makes for some violent sparks, but is easier on consumables while piercing thicker materials. The majority of consumable wear occurs during piercing. You could cut all day long on a single pierce if your plasma cutter and air compressor were 100% duty cycle, but piercing, especially through thick material, eats up consumables rather quickly.