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Plasma cutters are pretty efficient tools when it comes to larger and heavy metal cutting. While there are different types of plasma cutters out there each has its specific purpose and working approach to let out the finest final results.
The thickness of the metal sheet is a highly important factor for plasma cutters, you cannot choose either thicker than the recommended guidelines, or opt for thinner sheet metal. It’s all about being precise
If you are big into metal fabrication and metalwork, chances are you don’t know how thick a plasma cutter can cut! Therefore, this post will help you in getting the information without beating around the bush.
How thick can a plasma cutter cut?
Plasma cutter involves cutting of different metals sheets and other larger meals with significant efficiency. If we talk about the typical plasma cutter that is handheld, it is capable of cutting the metal featuring a maximum thickness of about 1 to 1.5 inches (35mm) in steel plate. The plasma cutter usually works on the source of electricity and compressed air with reasonable amounts.
A plasma cutter makes the efficiently equally useful for thicker and thinner metal with maintained strangeness and accuracy. However, for a CNC plasma cutter that is computer-controlled, the metal thickness is 150 mm (6 in) thick which a plasma cutter’s torch can easily deal with.
However, the plasma cutting performance depends on what type of machine you have as it is what sets the restrictions if any. For cutting the mild steel, the plasma cutter will perform a pretty faster and thicker cut as compared to alloys.
The plasma cutter works without any underperformance for conductive metal only including aluminum, mild steel, and stainless. If you particularly ask about a 30 Amp plasma cutter, it cuts 3/8 inches of thick metal and the maximum thickness can be 1/2.
In simpler words, the plasma cutter can cut any conductive metal sheet with a thickness of 1-2mm up to 1-2 inches. However, if you choose a thicker metal sheet the cutting process would become challenging due to sparks that blast out from the point of the arc.
Like thickness, you should also be careful about what a plasma cutter cannot cut!
What you should not cut with the plasma cutter
A plasma cutter is an efficient tool for metal fabrication and by now you must have known this fact as well. However, there are still some limitations that set the tool standards for exclusive metal only.
Since plasma cutters are only best for conductive metals, you cannot cut metals and objects that are not conductive in nature. Moreover, metals such as lead, tin, gallium, indium, thallium, ununhexium, ununpentium, ununquadium, ununtrium, Bismuth, and Tungsten are pretty poor conductors. As for lead, it is not only messy to cut by a plasma cutter due to a lot of spatter it can be dangerous too.
Conclusion
Before you know how to cut metals with a plasma cutter, the first step is choosing the right thickness of metal. In this article, we especially talk about this very factor. However, what type of plasma cutter you have is something that would change the scenario of metal precise thickness in the first place.