Suggestions for 11ga Stainless

[HMIAdapterPlate]

We cut picture frame type shapes out of 11ga stainless & regular steel plate. To get started we purchased a Gotorch 2x2 and a Victor/Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 42 with a standoff tip. It works great on regular steel, but the dross on stainless is too much. We would like to purchase a better plasma cutting setup for 11ga stainless steel, if it would help to get the dross down a minimal. We don't mind the cost if there is a setup that would work well.

Can anyone recommend a setup for 11ga stainless to achieve minimal dross? It would be nice to spend no more than 5 minutes cleaning up an 12" x 18" part. Any suggestions for the Plasma Cutter, Cutting Tips, Gas, Cutting height, speeds, amperage. Single Phase 240VAC would be preferred.

We are pretty green to plasma cutting and only learned off of the setup we have now.

Thanks,

Steve

[weldguy]

You should be able to get good results with your current setup. I am guessing your getting that slag that balls up on the underside of the edge and is difficult and time consuming to get off. I am not sure what your current settings are but try reducing your cut height (get it very close) and speeding up the cut speed until the dross goes away. Good luck.

[HMIAdapterPlate]

Thanks. Yes that is what we are experiencing. It takes a lot of effort to grind the dross afterwards. We usually set it to around 1/8" standoff, but we can try getting closer and faster.

[Ironken]

Just something that works for me as far as dross removal goes. I use Norton Zirconia sanding discs. The Zirc seems to deal with ss better and better life.

[HMIAdapterPlate]

Thank for the suggestion, we'll give Zirc a try.

[HMIAdapterPlate]

We ended up upgraded to the Hypertherm 45xp and the cut quality is better and consistent. The other plasma machine used less CFM and it seems it didn't have to air flow to blow the molten stainless clear of the part. There is less dross and cleanup time for the parts is reasonable now.

[nordicjack]

Did you try upping the pressure - or increasing the orifice size of the consumable.? I know you moved on to a new set up. But would really like to see if more trial and error with previous set up could have gotten it done a bit better.