Plasma cutting class next Thursday. I will present 30 minutes of slides, then I will do a demo and have everyone do at least one cut that evening. I will provide all the materials but if anyone wants to chip in some steel plate, that would be helpful.

I guess I need to talk to the board members about what to charge. All the money for the class goes to HF: I don't want to make money off of other members. I just want people to be safe and not break my Hypertherm

Cheers,

Nick

Nick,

I have some Aluminum in various thicknesses, 1/8", 3/8" if that would help, I also have a piece of 1/2" cold rolled steel I need to cut, looks like that's at the edge of the cutting ability. I'd really like to see how it Aluminum if that's in scope for the class you are proposing.

Pete

Pete, once again, you are very gracious and I thank you!

The plasma cutter will cut anything that conducts electricity, although I think some things you could theoretically cut you would not ever want to, such as magnesium or galvanized steel. Everything you mention can be cut by this plasma cutter.

I stopped by yesterday and worked with Jude to set up the cutter and do some test cutting. We cut some plate and 2" boxed tubing: all went very well. Had trouble cutting 1" box, though. I'm thinking the blowback from when you break through narrow tubing with the plasma beam disrupts the plasma reaction, causing the Hypertherm to shut itself off with a failure:airflow indication on the front panel.

But running the compressor on its own 20 amp circuit and the Hypertherm on the wood shop circuit worked AWESOME: I was able to continuously cut even after the compressor kicked in.

The compressor is leaking oil, by the way, which is a sad state of affairs since it is a very heavy-duty compressor and motor with a rather small tank. I have seen this size compressor on HUGE tanks before. I believe it could work well with a tank 5 or even 10 times the size. It would be cool if we could fix the compressor and rig up a new tank 5+ times the size to it. In fact I propose if HF wants to do that I WILL DONATE THE COMPRESSOR to HF, but only if the compressor is worth repairing.

That sounds wicked cool.

Is the tank something that has to be bought, having been built specifically for that purpose, or can metal savvy folks make one out of, say, a water heater tank?

Also, I saw, in the big red (I think) dumpster in the parking lot, a large metal countertop thing. I tried getting it out, but it's frozen a bit; I decided to wait until someone else said it might be suitable for cutting.

Would someone take a look and see if that's the case? If it would work, and be useful, I'll supply the elbow grease to get it out.

bought. we're talking about a LOT of pressure, and a pressure rated vessel.

Kind of a no-brainer but if we can get this tank, it should be set up so the whole shop can use it, not just one tool like the plasma cutter. That was my intention.

Boardmembers, after determining whether the compressor is salvageable (and I believe it is! I really do!), let me know how you want to proceed.

shop air would be lovely, but how many cfm at what psi can the compressor output? our current big priority is electrical upgrades, i believe air will have to take a back seat to that for fundraising, but might be a good near term target.

5.6 cfm @ 90 psi is what it's rated for. Think of it as about the output of a small stationary shop air compressor. Not a big, serious one. Might not be worth it. Up to you.

I've mentioned it before, there are several compressors on auction here. I also see 2 tanks, one vertical and one horizontal that might work with the existing compressor.

Pete

http://www.hoffhilk.net/cgi-bin/mnlist. ... OMPRESSORS