Bowed material - setting tip height question

Trying to cut multiple parts out of a 24"x24" piece of steel. The steel is a bit bowed. Enough that when I set .060 clearance at the lowest spot I drag on the highest spot.

This obviously creates a bit of a problem. Are there any tips or tricks that you guys can help out with in this regard?

Turn it over so that the edges are now high and then clamp those down.

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I have not figured out how to do that with the water table. Any suggestions?

Wide jaw C-clamps won’t work for you?

Or try some rare-earth (neodymium) magnets. Depending on the thickness you may be able to find some that will hold the bowed edges/corners to the slats in the table. Careful in placing them so the torch head doesn’t hit them.

Depending on the thickness of the stock… Some big heavy chunks of metal or a brick can work too.

Magnets will work too. I had some pretty potent magnets laying around, I 3D printed holders for them so they are easy to pull. Works like a charm. Before I did that I had to use a clamp and my welding ground magnet to get it flat…just some ideas :slight_smile:

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Hey guys - sorry for my absence. It’s been pretty busy here at the shop.

Clamping as far as I can tell is not an option given that I’m running the water table.

Material is 3/16" thick.

Best I have been able to come up with is to put the bow in one axis, cut my parts parallel to that axis, reset my zero and height to account for the bow and cut another run.

Not sure why. There are lots of different clamps with different throat sizes etc. (You can never have too many clamps :yum:)

The best way to clamp down is if you have some 3’ long steel bars that you can set across your material, and then clamp to the ‘Crossfire’ tubes on each side.

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Great idea. I have a 6ft length of 1/4"x2" steel that should work great for this. Maybe my first (or one of my first cuts with the RazorCut. :slightly_smiling_face:

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