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First "lunchbox size" plasma cutter experience

trevj

Ultra Member
Don't hate me: sounds like you could use a router and a two flute spiral bit to do what you are aiming to do. Cheaper and likely cleaner than the plasma. Even if you take a couple of passes to do it, you might like the results better and easier cleanup. IMHO.

BTW, do you mind saying what you paid for the plasma cutter?
<slow clap!>

Ayup! Had a job come in to one of our shops. Needed to make 48 essentially matching panels, of 1/8 aluminum, to fit the back cockpit walls of Bell 412 helicopters.
Talked the boss into authorizing the purchase of a new Dewalt Router and some pilot bearing bits. We banged out a plywood template while they were out getting the tools and tooling

Took us one day to make 48 panels, that had came in with an 8 man-hours per piece time estimate.

Back of the shop looked like a silver snowstorm but the work was done and cleaned, way faster than anyone expected.
 

trevj

Ultra Member
Jim, if you try the router, I can say from experience, a decent set of proper safety glasses, with closed in sides, AND a decent pull-down, full face cover safety shield, are a great idea.
And ear plugs! :)

Router cutting freehand can be done with some care. It's much easier and less like to blow a cutter, if you use a template though!
 

DavidR8

Scrap maker
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I would not want to free hand rout aluminum. Template only and never climb cut.
 

JimGnitecki

Active Member
No one uses argon for cutting, it is to expensive
I think I agree. But there may be specific cutting situations where, for example, a very thick cut, where the air CFM needed is higher than the available compressor can provide for. The Argon cylinder then be a substitute air source. Or, maybe work being done in a place, or a time, when the noise of a compressor is unacceptable.

JIm G
 

JimGnitecki

Active Member
Jim, if you try the router, I can say from experience, a decent set of proper safety glasses, with closed in sides, AND a decent pull-down, full face cover safety shield, are a great idea.
And ear plugs! :)

Router cutting freehand can be done with some care. It's much easier and less like to blow a cutter, if you use a template though!

David_R8 also said: I would not want to free hand rout aluminum. Template only and never climb cut.


Yeah, I'm not attracted to the idea of using a router for cutting patterns in either aluminum or stainless steel. Call me a wimp if you like! :)

Jim G
 

trevj

Ultra Member
I would not want to free hand rout aluminum. Template only and never climb cut.
I have done. Sketchy as heck, do not recommend. But it got us out of the jam we were in.

White knuckle grip! About all that scares me more, is using one of those chainsaw chain equipped disks on an angle grinder, for carving! THAT is a tool that requires both you UNDIVIDED attention, AND that yo be fully on your 'game'!
 

trevj

Ultra Member
David_R8 also said: I would not want to free hand rout aluminum. Template only and never climb cut.


Yeah, I'm not attracted to the idea of using a router for cutting patterns in either aluminum or stainless steel. Call me a wimp if you like! :)

Jim G
Stainless would be something I'd let someone else do, with their tools, when I wasn't around...


Much like cutting aluminum with various saws, a router does a surprisingly nice job of it, and is just another tool in the 'kit'!

Now, just as one example, your weld cupons. Do you need to bevel them? If so, the router is a pat hand at it, using a piloted angle bevel bit, either using the stock itself as a template, or the edge of the bench.

Just saying. These are things that mean you spend time welding rather than filing bevels, say.
 

JimGnitecki

Active Member
I have done. Sketchy as heck, do not recommend. But it got us out of the jam we were in.

White knuckle grip! About all that scares me more, is using one of those chainsaw chain equipped disks on an angle grinder, for carving! THAT is a tool that requires both you UNDIVIDED attention, AND that yo be fully on your 'game'!

Oh gosh! THAT sounds even scarier to me. I had a friend who tried to impress his girlfriend by using a chainsaw to prune a branch off a tree in her backyard, and ended up with a huge and ugly scar on his face after a very stressful trip to the ER. He was lucky it did not kill him. That pretty much made me forget any idea of ever using a chainsaw as an untrained amateur.

Jim G
 

trevj

Ultra Member
Oh gosh! THAT sounds even scarier to me. I had a friend who tried to impress his girlfriend by using a chainsaw to prune a branch off a tree in her backyard, and ended up with a huge and ugly scar on his face after a very stressful trip to the ER. He was lucky it did not kill him. That pretty much made me forget any idea of ever using a chainsaw as an untrained amateur.

Jim G
Like any tool, if used poorly, it can bite you.

FWIW the disk I mentioned was or is sold by an outfit called King Arthur's Tools, and can be seen here. https://katools.com/knights-choice-all-blade-set/
 

JimGnitecki

Active Member
Stainless would be something I'd let someone else do, with their tools, when I wasn't around...


Much like cutting aluminum with various saws, a router does a surprisingly nice job of it, and is just another tool in the 'kit'!

Now, just as one example, your weld cupons. Do you need to bevel them? If so, the router is a pat hand at it, using a piloted angle bevel bit, either using the stock itself as a template, or the edge of the bench.

Just saying. These are things that mean you spend time welding rather than filing bevels, say.
Yes, I can see safely bevelling the LONG 6" side of the coupon on my router table IF I can push it through along the fence using my high tech yellow push block with friction bottom surface AND rear anti-kickback paddles, but never by hand only. And, I would NOT try the short 3 inch side.

Jim G
 

JimGnitecki

Active Member
Like any tool, if used poorly, it can bite you.

FWIW the disk I mentioned was or is sold by an outfit called King Arthur's Tools, and can be seen here. https://katools.com/knights-choice-all-blade-set/
I get scared just LOOKING at the photo of that tool!

I'm probably prejudiced after having a plant worker many years ago insert his hand into a rubber calendaring machine and squashing and then amputating his hand and forearm as a result. I had to pick up his wife and drive her to the hospital emergency room. Very unpleasant memory.

Jim G
 

phaxtris

(Ryan)
Premium Member
Premium Member
Here is a good article regarding shielding gas selection


Im not sure how using a bottle (nitrogen or agon mix) over a compressor would benefit in the noise category, plasma cutting and the related activities are loud as hell to begin with, not really saving and DB by ditching the compressor....and don't forget the straight argon you use for your general tig welding wont work, it needs to be a mix
 

trevj

Ultra Member
Yes, I can see safely bevelling the LONG 6" side of the coupon on my router table IF I can push it through along the fence using my high tech yellow push block with friction bottom surface AND rear anti-kickback paddles, but never by hand only. And, I would NOT try the short 3 inch side.

Jim G
They make beveling tools that operate on the exact same principles, that can do steel pipe for pipeline use. As well as bench top units for taking the sharp edges off sheet parts.

Personally, I would likely look at making a sled of sorts that contains the cupon and blocks the chips from coming out the top, if I were considering using a router table. Another handy use for woodworking, making things so you can work metal! Who knew? :)

But before doing that, I would most like do the entire long edge of the bar, before I bucked it into cupons, by clamping it on the edge of a bench, and using the material itself, or the edge of the bench, as the template for the bearing to run against.
 

Six O Two

(Marco)
IME, a jigsaw is a lot less noisy, easier to control and much cleaner (in terms of chips everywhere) than a router. The cut does needs a bit more cleaning up vs a router, but for cutting inside curves in 3/16 plate, I'd be reach for a jigsaw long before a router. Or you could rough it out with a jigsaw and clean the last 1mm with a router on a template.
 

JimGnitecki

Active Member
IME, a jigsaw is a lot less noisy, easier to control and much cleaner (in terms of chips everywhere) than a router. The cut does needs a bit more cleaning up vs a router, but for cutting inside curves in 3/16 plate, I'd be reach for a jigsaw long before a router. Or you could rough it out with a jigsaw and clean the last 1mm with a router on a template.
That would work!

Jim g
 

trevj

Ultra Member
Worth a try!

When we were producing the panels we brought the router in for, it was a solution to a specific problem, which worked far and away better than we imagined it would.

It is not the solution to every problem, by any means though.
 
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