Pipe Cutter

[BIGNASTY]

I have been building horse pens and pole barns. I have been using drill casing and that is some tuff stuff. I have been using a torch to cut it and have made the local gas bottle refill business very happy. Is a plasma cutter a viable option never used one before and was just wondering about it. Thanks BIG

 

[GHarman]

BIG! Plasma cutters are great. BUT! You must have an air supply that provides a high volume of DRY air. Moisture in your air supply will blow out the orifice and tips in short order! That can get expensive! The problem is the transition of the moisture, into steam at the tip. A volume change of 1-1600 occurs when the moisture hits the plasma stream. The temperature of a typical plasma is 30,000-50,000*F. Its in that range because it can only be calculated. It will cut anything that is electrically conductive with a narrow heat affected zone. Dont breathe the smoke! Use a proper respirator when cutting with a plasma. You dont want to load up yer lungs with metallic vapors! You size the cutting by the amperage output. A 35 A output will cleanly cut 3/8" thick material, as an example. GregH

 

[BIGNASTY]

6010

Greg would a alternative be 6010 1/8 rod at 300 to 400 DC amps work. And how scary would that be for a novice. Im doing ok with the welding but I havent done anything fancy like this.

 

[GHarman]

Greg would a alternative be 6010 1/8 rod at 300 to 400 DC amps work. And how scary would that be for a novice. Im doing ok with the welding but I havent done anything fancy like this.

BIG, Try it! I'd lower the amps some. You can buy "cut rod" for severing. You can get by with severing the drill pipe, but it leaves alot of cleanup and makes extra work! You can cut it with a chop saw or a port-a-band band saw with good quality blades(bi-metal). I'm sure that drill pipe is a chrome moly alloy. You can tell something about the metal when you try to cut it with a oxy-aceytelene torch. If it gums up in the kerf and kinda fills it back in as you cut and/or the sparks from grinding have a multiple starburst effect, it is a high probability that it is a high carbon/high alloy steel. When you do the coping and hand fitting, thats getting fancy. Hope this helps? GregH

 

[SMorneau]

Take a pc of pipe to your local equipment guys and let them show you how well a plasma works. You will like it.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Going to Missoula Monday Ill do that