Plasma centre piercing

Cut quality issues can be discussed here, most common issues have been discussed here and should help you.
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4130metalworks
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Plasma centre piercing

Post by 4130metalworks »

This is the first time I have tried the drill function in sheetcam to mark location of holes. Just checking this is how good to expect
Front side isn't super great, backside is almost perfect
12mm thick mild steel
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acourtjester
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Re: Plasma centre piercing

Post by acourtjester »

I use a dimple method for marking holes to be drill after, just a quick peck to center punch locations.
dimple 1.JPG
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dimple 1.JPG
dimple 1.JPG (42.5 KiB) Viewed 308 times
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adbuch
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Re: Plasma centre piercing

Post by adbuch »

4130metalworks wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2024 9:12 am This is the first time I have tried the drill function in sheetcam to mark location of holes. Just checking this is how good to expect
Front side isn't super great, backside is almost perfect
12mm thick mild steel
Those turned out great! I assume they are around 1/8" or so in diameter. TJ turned me on to using drill mills to open up holes to size. The drill mills are used on a milling machine or similar. I bought a set of them, but have not had a chance to try them out yet. They look something like this one. I bought mine on Ebay but are a different brand.

Here is a thread with more discussion about this.

viewtopic.php?p=233274&hilit=drill+mill#p233274

David
drill mill tool.jpg
4130metalworks
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Re: Plasma centre piercing

Post by 4130metalworks »

Thank you for the reply david and acourtjester. I’ll give both those methods a try

I didn’t have much issue drilling the holes afterwards with a standard hss drill although on larger holes that needed more plasma time those mill style drill would be the ticket
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