Hypertherm 45XP and piercing/cutting 5/8" plate

[ChelanJim]

If you are using Fusion for CAM you might look at trying these settings:
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I have been pretty successful with this method. Just keep changing your lead-in radius with a micro lead-in until it hits approximately the center. If Fusion hangs while doing it, change the sweep angle to 179 degrees. It seems to be a bit of a fluke with the difference between 180 and 179.

Cutting from the Center of a Hole: Fusion 360

I went through a few of my designs with lots of holes and used your method with the 180 degree sweep setting. It works pretty good. I am not using any calculations. . . just trial and error with numbers. I have had several that simply caused fusion to hang. I finally found that I could sneak up on the 180 by using 179 and it would work but if I used 180, no luck. Thanks again for figuring this out and sharing for those of us with Fusion 360 CAM issues. For those who knock Fusion 360, I underst…

But, I think @brownfox idea is what you need to get to. This might help you do the 1/4" hole in the center, then clean the dross and run the tool path with a start in the center a second time with this type of configuration but going for your 3/4" hole size. Obviously, the pierce delay would need to be short during this second cutting action since there will not be material to cut during the pierce.