Plasma Cutting Size Accommodations

Do anyone know if the Plasma cutting table will accommodate a 4x8 sheet of 3/16 steel?

1 Like

Yeah, it should. It will fit, and it should cut it no problem. Hardest part will be getting it onto the machine :slight_smile:

1 Like

A 244 lb sheet of steel can be more challenging to load than you might first guess. Only having access to one end and part of one side makes it more fun.

1 Like

it’s much easier if you turn the machine on and put it into the “Load” position (far back corner rather than far near corner).

Hardest part IMO is moving it through the building to the metal shop in the first place :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

Y’all dont have a sense of adventure?

1 Like

Considering I’ll be doing this as well, we do have a cart for transporting material? You can pull into the auto bay and unload from there strait through the double doors into the metal shop, but it’s a tight fit with the scrap shelf and powdercoating oven.

There was a point where we considered doing a gantry from the loading dock to the metal shop. It was a great idea, not sure why we abandoned it.

I usually use the red cart with side wails for sheet steel and the like.

Only if there is no work going on in auto; a vehicle may not be brought into the bays for loading when there’s work.

(n.b: the ramp is never supposed to be parked on even for loading, it just blocks the bays)

We have a loading dock next to the freebie shelf, and the carts can always be brought outside and up/down the ramp without issue if there’s work in the bays.

If you mean the committee metal storage (that’s not the scrap supply) it does need a little more cleanup. I have the new plasma hand torch I’m bringing in tonight and cleaning up the cutouts was my way to try it out.

But between it and the powder coating oven it’s usually not an issue for the red cart; because of the widths of the walkways all over moving sheets should always happen on their sides anyway

Too much from expansion still isn’t finalized and it’s distant timeline at this point. Never was completely abandoned.

2 Likes

I appreciate you helping clean up the committee storage. What happened to our hand plasma torch?

The unit we’ve had is a loaner and, on top of being low capacity, we weren’t going to keep putting work into it (we’ve already replaced its hose once).

We received a donation of a nice thermal dynamics unit; we only had to get a hand torch for the machine since it came with a machine torch

1 Like

I looked at Gorbel overhead gantry. After I talked to the Rep a couple years ago, he told me the style we had in mind would have to be signed off (engineer & landlord). The intent was to use the building trusses & use that style system. We can still go with a Gorbel but will have to be free-standing. At the time they were about 2k for either or.

1 Like

It seems like someone could do $2k worth of damage to something or someone pretty easily trying to load 4x8 sheets. Once things settle with the membership numbers/finances I’d totally vote for it or teach classes to cover those costs.