5/8" plate with my Hypertherm 1000?

[Wesley Nichols]

..... I have whole plate of bale hooks to cut out of 5/8" plate (mild steel) with my hypertherm 1000... Is this gonna work? I have it on a plasmacam table.. could someone give me an approxamate inches per minute, pierce time, and arc voltage to start with? I've cut a lot of 1/2"..... I do have a Hypertherm 1250 also, but it's not wired into my table... should I rather go to the hassle of wiring it in, and use this? Any suggestions appreciated.

[steelfx]

Jim Colt could probably best answer this, but even 1/2" plate is a struggle with my 1000.
I think you'll need the 80 amps that the 1250 can give you. just my opinion.

Bill, Steel FX

[Feckless]

The lowest power I cut 3/4 or 20mm is 70 amps and real slow, below this things go bad for me and the pierce time is not enough. I did a bit of playing about and find 85amps the best, I have a 100amp 3ph thermal dynamics and I found if I crank it up too close to the consumables amperage limit then the tips and electrodes don't last, I'm not too woried about speed as the machine is not running 24/7. If I were you I'd use the bigger machine. I cut it at about 18"/min or 450mm/min. There is also the duty cycle rating to think about. I can run the machine about 3Mtrs at 100 A without a break, 9'
I don't know the hypertherm machines but do admire them, I'm sure Jim will give you the definitave answer.
I'd love to have the funds to buy a 200A water cooled power supply, but I don't

Edit: MY figures were wrong, I misstook 5/8th for 3/4, metric is soooo much easier

[jimcolt]

Piece of cake with the 5/8" on the Powermax1000. You don't say which PlasmaCam (98z, DHC, DHC2, Samson).....but here are the cut specs.....I have done this many times, the key is making sure the pierce height is correct and the pierce delay time is correct.

Shield....120930, Retaining cap (if you have the DHC2 or Samson) 220061, Retaining cap (if you don't have the DHC2 or Samson) 120928, Nozzle....120931, Electrode....120926, Swirl Ring...120925.

Amperage....60

Pierce height... .2"

Pierce delay time 1.7 seconds

Cut height .062 "

Cut speed 20 inches per minute

Good luck, let me know how it turns out. You will not have a duty cycle rating issue unless your cuts are extremely long, or your ambient room temperature is up over 100 degrees. As long as pierce time and pierce height are correct....consumable life will be good.....assuming not much moisture in your air!

Jim Colt

[Wesley Nichols]

thank-you very much sir... I cut solid for about 3 hours this afternoon with no ruined tips, and lots of beautiful parts... perfect 1" holes in that 5/8 plate... your cutting speed was just a bit high for me, but everything else turned out tops... thanks. Hypertherm's a nice machine.