Slag Issue

[runninwild400]

First of all,,great site,,love the art files and the input from everyone when somebody has a problem. I've been able to keep the slag to a minimum on most steel thicknesses until now. Been cutting 16 ga and the slag is horrible,,,and very hard to get off. I'm using a Torchmate 2 with a Hypertherm 1250, fine cut consumables. I keep speeding up the feedrate trying to find that sweet spot but no luck. What I have noticed is that machine doesn't appear to be actually speeding up. I was wondering if this has something to do with the continous contouring feature. The part I'm trying to cut out is a sunflower which is all small curves, I've played with the continous contouring settings a bit but no luck. The feedrate is set at 150ipm and I notice a couple of spots where it looks like it speeds up for a split second on a small straight section but that's it. I've tried lowering the amperage a bit but I would rather speed up the feedrate and cut the parts quicker if possible. Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.

[runninwild400]

Thanks for the reply Leatherhands,,I'll give that a try tomorrow night and see how it goes.

[jim]

Leatherhands is right I have a thermo dynamics cut master 101.I use 16 ga for most of my work i cut at a speed of 102 using a 40 amp tip and amps on the plasma set at 35.I found this to work the best then droping it on the floor removes most of the slag.
Jim (murals in metal)

[runninwild400]

Thanks Jim, I will lower the amps as much as I can tonight and play with the speed some more. Thanks for the replys.

[peepers]

16 gauge is just about all I cut. I use a Powermax 1000 with fine cut consumables at 200 ipm 30 amps 80 psi. The results is almost slag free. I do get a small amount of slag on the tight radius's due to Mach slowing down for the radius. but it will flake off very easy. I found that cutting slower makes more slag and on will burn up close small detail. It took a while to dial it in, but worth the effort in the long run.

[flamethrower]

I agree with peppers faster works for me. I cut as fast as possible even if it means running the amperage up.16 gauge cuts better at 200 to 225 with little slag.

[ce offroad]

I had that same problem with it burning up small details because the metal was getting too hot,it was unavoidable with the cut path so I put a water spray bar on my gantry that moves with the head.it cools the metal down as it's cutting and it I did not need to build a water table. for heaver metals I still cut then dry and don't have a tank full of sludge to clean out.

[srp]

I'm new to this forum and it look great! I cut alot of 16ga hr and until recently cuts were very good with a minimun of slag/dross. Now I find that what was working is not so good.I have been through amps and ipm's - don't have much hair left. Looking at what has changed is the steel I am receiving.
this stuff is coming off a boat and who knows where it is coming from and alot of it is crap and I believe this is a source of some of the slag issues. When we are able to obtain US or Canadian mill steel the results are good and I have now changed my supplier to insure the steel is good.

[ron]

HI guys,I also have slag problems but I use 10 and 12 gauge with a TRACKER CNC ,Thermal Dynamics CUTMASTER 101 with a 40 amp tip,65 IPM SPEED. i MUST BE DOING SOMETHING WRONG AS I HAVE TO GRIND OFF THE SLAG.

[Wine Country]

Check out http://www.hypertherm.com and go to the information section. You can check out previously published articles
from various publications. There is one from the 2007 "The Fabricator" magazine called "Improving plasma cut quality".
The article talks about how to get the best out of your plasma cutter. It also talks about low speed dross being easy to flake off with a scraper versus high speed dross that usually needs to be removed with a grinder. I have learned much from this
site in the past. Marty

[jim]

I am also working with a cut master 101 on a tracker table. Yes you need to replace the tips and the electrodes but dont forget the part in between its the start cartridge its more expensive and many over look this for that reason.
Jim(murals in metal)

[rpage]

1250 Hypertherm with finecuts cutting 16 gauge (cold rolled). we cut a LOT of 16 gauge. My speed is about 138 ipm at 40 amps. I think we are at 85 psi, will have to check that to be sure. We cut all cold rolled because I had a heck of a time with hot rolled. It warped way more and seemed to be of much poorer quality. Seemed to have hard and soft spots. I only cut a couple 5 x 10s until I gave up on it. 16 gauge is cold rolled only for us. With new tips I get almost zero dross. As my tip wears dross shows up more.

Now I cut everything else hot rolled and dont have many issues. Cut a fair amount of 14 gauge with out much issue.

BTW, we use a Samson PlasmaCam setup.

just my 2 cents.

[m230042]

A lot of the problem is that increasing speed on a radius doesn't always change the speed. This is not a plasma issue but a cnc issue. How ever the solutions provided above are suitable workarounds to the cnc limitation. And god knows steel is a factor. I saw some hot rolled that looked like it had a tin can still in it. Not a joke!!. But when a radius is calculated it is not at the set speed but a speed that wont make the table shake. also every cornet goes to 0x 0y and it slows down and speeds up comming out of it . this can also happen on points if the angle is set to small. It's a game of what is a corner and what is not and is machine dependant High end machines and stop and start faster without over shooting the mark where low end machines will overshoot or depending on the mass over draw the motor current and blow a fuse.

Most non fab applications call it artistic licenese. Fab shops can't abide with it and buy well made machines.

[gerrycnc]

With the machine at work arcs and radius corners are cut slower than straight paths.
When it is cutting nice we get a small amount of dross on corners and none on straight sections.
If you spray the back side of your material with antispatter used for welding the dross
doesnt stick so bad.
(plasma cutter Kinetic 2000 with hypertherm hpr130)