Cutting 1/4in 6061 aluminum help

I have cut 1/4" aluminum with my Crossfire PRO and the Primeweld CUT60. However compared to the same cut in 1/4" steel, the edge finish is nowhere near as good. I get a much bigger taper and I need to do a lot of cleanup. Unfortunately I already done that so I don’t have pictures, but I will test-cut some parts now to try to find better settings.

Besides the obvious from the cut chart, 45A, 60PSI, 54IPM (1380mm/m) what should I try? Pretty frustrating being used to the results in steel… :sweat_smile:

54 IPM looks a bit slow for aluminum, I cut 1/4” aluminum at 100 IPM with the RazorWeld at 45A

1 Like

OK interesting… do you suffer from tapered cuts at all with your settings? How much air pressure do You use?

Very little taper. The pressure is factory set on the RazorWeld and runs around 60psi while cutting.

Oh thanks, yeah I’ll use 60PSI anyway - what about the torch nozzle, do you use regular consumables? I really hope to be able to tune this and get nicer edges

I have the X45 machine torch, there is only one nozzle available for it, I believe it’s 1mm.

The chemistry of cutting steel vs aluminum is very different. Steel reacts to the plasma and actually fuels if, cutting much more cleanly than AL which only melts with the plasma’s heat. Consequently, for AL, you want lots of heat and fast moving to keep it reasonably smooth edge.

2 Likes

And that is fine, but are you suggesting I use the full 60A and try to find the highest moving speed?

I don’t know the right parameters for your plasma cutter, but I do know that you can not compare AL settings or results with Steel.

1 Like

What are your other settings for that? Amperage, cut height, etc?

45A .06 cut height.