Duramax cutting 1/8th inch

[timberfab]

I have a Hypertherm 1650 with a duramax retrofit torch.

I'm cutting 0.125in (1/8th or 11Ga) mild steel. There is no book setting.

I have muddled through but I usually wind up with a lot of dross to clean up and it gets old.

So what are the book settings? or what have you all come up with to cut with little to no dross?

[acourtjester]

Are you using unshielded or shielded tips in the 65 book there is about 10 volts difference for the setting for the 2 tip types.

[timberfab]

shielded consumables


I Can set up my machine to cut it fairly well. I guess my issue is the fact that there is no setting from Hypertherm for exactly 1/8th inch thick steel. With the Duramax torch on any other factory settings I get little to no dross at all, I like to run them.

[Shane Warnick]

There is only 9.5 thousandths (0.0095") difference between 10g and 1/8", with 10g being the thicker of the two. I don't know where you get your steel, but I can't even get true 1/8", everyone here carries 10g. I cut 10g at book specs with my PM85, 95 ipm at 45 amps with finecut consumables and it has very little to zero dross. I guess the place to start would be is it high speed or low speed dross? Low speed is bubbly and flakes off fairly easily and is just barely attached along the cut edge. High speed looks more like a thin hard line of metal, with little to zero porosity. Almost like a really thin weld bead. It is REALLY HARD (in my experience) to remove compared to low speed. If you think it's low speed, go faster in 5% increments and see what happens. Inversely, if you think it's high speed, slow down in 5% increments and see if it doesn't nearly disappear or maybe change to low speed dross (easier to clean).

Hope this helps

Shane

[timberfab]

thanks shane. I'll give it a shot in the morning.

[tnbndr]

I can get 11 gauge or 10 gauge at my supplier. I just interpolated between the two shown on the charts to get a starting point and worked with the settings from there.
In your chart I would start at around 145 ipm and see what happens.

[_Ogre]

we picked up a 4x4 drop of 11 ga, i just use the 10 ga setting
minimal dross that scraps off with my fingernail

[Shane Warnick]

I thought about this last night, and Jim Colt may want to chime in on this, but I would think that with a PM1650 with a Duramax retrofit, that you may be cutting too slow if you are still using the charts from the 1650 with an old style (original factory) torch. Not sure, but I know you can download the new cut charts off the Hypertherm website, you should be able to download the chart for a Powermax 105 and just run at the same amps for the thinner material. That being said, if you used the speeds for 45 amps with a duramax torch, and finecut, you may get a nicer cut. I don't have the time to download them all and compare, but I bet the speeds vs amps are the same for all the machines that are using a Duramax torch, unless you have airflow issues. Not sure, but might be worth a try. Might be a closer starting point than the old charts for the 1650.

Shane

[Largemouthlou]

The retro fit manual for the duramax covers the 1250 and 1650.
see if this takes you there
https://www.hypertherm.com/Xnet/library ... ?locale=en

[Shane Warnick]

Best I can tell the picture that was posted is the cut chart for 45amp shielded for a retrofit duramax torch. Disregard my previous post. Let us know if you get it dialed in.

Shane

[timberfab]

i must have brain farted. I ran the 10ga settings and it cut great!

[steel 35]

i must have brain farted. I ran the 10ga settings and it cut great!

I love it when a search works! (Thanks)