Hi folks
I have been asked to cut an exhaust manifold plate for a 2JZ engine out of 1/2 steel stock (customer sent his dxf file). Any tips apart from following the PrimeWeld setup parameters? … Pierce delay, etc?
Never cut anything thicker than 1/4" before.
Also, any ideas on how I should price such a cut?
This should be fun! 
cost…I take material cost and double it for shop time and consumables as a base.
$50 material = $100 base price for work…that looks like $25/hr for labor for 2 hrs…if you want add in the fudge factor for specialty items such as flap wheels for grinding…cleaning solution…
Cant help you out with that plasma cutter not familiar with it but give yourself a little more lead in if possible cutting thicker material I find it helps out my cuts.
I charge $5 bucks a sqft plus material to cut anything from 16g to 1/2" for customer supplied files. I cut five to seven 5’x10’ sheets per week this way which brings in $1200 to $1800 per week for very little work besides loading a few sheets and spending $30 to $50 bucks on consumables plus it gives me lots of free material for other projects because I obviously round up on material.
The real money is the guys that come in with a idea in there head and you have to design and build it but the customer supplied files always pays the bills.
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Great, thanks for the info. What plasma cutter are you using and how much pierce delay for 1/2"?
I use a 45xp and a 65 now as well for the thicker stuff 3/8 and up.
For the 3/8" and 1/2" I use a full second delay even though its probably not needed I use it anyway to make sure I get a good pierce and I don’t notice much more or any more consumable wear. It sucks not getting a good cut with thicker plate its such a hassle to fix.
I know most people dont have a abundance of 1/2 plate kicking around and its expensive but a couple tests to get it dialed in would help you out a lot.
Much appreciated!
Just curious did they say why they wanted made out of 1/2? Seems a bit excessive.
I cut a lot of exhaust manifolds for LS engines and a lot of turbo mounts and flanges and I dont think I’ve ever used 1/2 for any of it maybe some 3/8" occasionally for some turbo plates but not 1/2"
One other thing I do when cutting plates like that I just mark the bolt holes and drill them out after especially in thicker plate.
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That’s a $150 in TT $!
That’s $150 in what?
Actually, US$1.00 = TT$7.00