Gouging with a plasma

[xnyehelo]

My boss has told me that he heard of someone using a plasma cutter to gouge with. What we are looking to do, is we have some 4" thick plates that were cut an 1/8" wide and they are too thick for me to cut with my plasma. What he is planning is for me to use my robot with a Thermal dynamics Ultra cut-300 and gouge the 1/8 off the width. I was wondering if anyone had ever heard/seen or maybe done it themselves? Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Heath.

[weldguy]

I have used the gouging function to remove welds in the past but I can't see this working out well in this situation. I don't know if your 300 amp plasma will simply cut the 1/8" off. If it will great, otherwise it sounds like you need an oxy-fuel torch for this job and even with that its going to be a tall order. Just my 2cents

[xnyehelo]

Im not really aiming to "cut" it I believe that his plan is to try and "scribe" it off. We arent sure if it is going to work either, but they are getting me a plate to see if it will work at all. I was just looking to see if it had been attempted before.

[mdwalker]

The key here I will be the required tolerance. You can definately remove the material with gouging but you probably won't get a clean & consistant surface. Gouging is designed for removing large amounts of material quickly, not accuracy. Not sure how gouging would work on the robot. You didn't specify the dimensions of the parts but I would be curious how they were originally cut. If they would fit in a bandsaw & you have a good quality bandsaw available that might be the way to go.

[xnyehelo]

The part is a 4"X 12 5/8"X36' grade 50 steel plate. We have guys now that are grinding off the extra 1/8", its supposed to be 12 1/2 wide. We also do not have a bandsaw available, we do have a mill but the workload on the mill would mean we probable wouldnt get our plate back until late next week. I believe this is why he is trying to explore some alternatives

[jimcolt]

Plasma gouging is done with a special gouging nozzle on most plasma torches....the gouging nozzle produces a soft, fat arc that is designed primarily for gouging out welds, with less penetration as compared to a cutting nozzle. If a cutting nozzle is used for gouging...it usually produces a deep, narrow gouge......and generally will just make a mess of your material. Check with Thermal Dynamics......zi am pretty sure that there is not a gouging nozzle available for the torch that you have.

Best bet will likely be grinding or milling the edge of the plate.

Jim Colt

[xnyehelo]

Thank you, that is what I was looking for. The fact that someone has done it before. Now I have my thermal dynamics salesman looking into it for me.

[Scratch]

I've done lots of gouging with my TD 151. I use the standard 80 or 90 amp tips, I haven't bought the gouging tips yet. I save all my "older" tips and electrodes and when they get too rough for cutting, I put them in the "gouging' bucket and use them when I need to gouge.
The gouge aint gonna be pretty... but it'll gouge. Keep in mind I mostly gouge for art stuff but sometimes use the technique for trimming and weld removal too. Here's a couple pics of my gouging projects.

[Eagle Mtn Metal Works]

Scratch Very niiiiiiiice work keep it up