Wrong direction!

[plain ol Bill]

Ah man - just read the post by Jim Colt about cut directions. Call me old and senile I guess - I have been cutting the wrong direction since I started then! I have always cut interior cuts CW and exterior CCW. Now I have to go out in the morning, reverse directions and see the difference. I get very good cut edge quality with my Powermax 1250 with little angularity so it will be interesting to see the difference.

[Gamelord]

My motto - if it ain't broke...don't fix it.

[Largemouthlou]

Keep us posted Bill!!

[plain ol Bill]

Cut some 12 ga. this morning - I'm not quite blind yet but darned if I could see any difference in the cut. I'm sure in heavier plate you might but I rarely cut heavier than 10 ga.

[jim8014]

Bill, when our machine was up and running, that 1/2 plate I showed you we cut the wrong direction, Honestly, it looked as good as the 1/2" plate that Farwest cut for us.

[plain ol Bill]

Jim like I said I have been cutting the wrong direction I guess since I started using a CNC table and have never noticed any problems. With that said I am going to get used to checking the "reverse cut direction" button in Sheetcam. If Jim Colt says it as far as I am concerned that is gospel when it comes to plasma!
I also need to go back and review all my cutting tools for different materials and get them closer to being in line with Hypertherm reccomendations. I have tweaked a lot of my tools for particular jobs and forgotten to change them back again.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

the difference in cut direction effects which side of the cut ejects the swarf back out of the cut, same as with a conventional rotary tool turning clockwise, the right side of the tool throws the chips backwards out of the cut cleanly, while the left side pushes chips into the cut where there is no place for the chips to go except up or down or clog in the bit until it gets to the right side where it can exit cleanly

with plasma that means the left side of the cut is more likely to be more ragged than the right side of the cut due to the plasma jet swirling clockwise, which means clockwise for outside cuts and counterclockwise for inside cuts should leave a cleaner edge on the part rather than on the scrap

[srp]

I also believe it has to do with angularity of cut edge with the right side with the least angle. Many times I will cut with the inside and the outside cuts with the same direction. My machine is sloppy and this way each cut has the same errors. Pieces come out looking better. My products are only decorative.