Is the first time I tried cutting 65 amp. It was quarter inch mild steel. Slightly deformed from the heat. the material dropped straight down into the water and landed in long beads. You can feel it with your hand underneath. There are no holes or anything like that. I’ve got some stainless steel sheet metal that I’m going to cut and used to line the bottom of the water table just to help protect from this. Anybody else have suggestions other than don’t use 65 amps.
I only had that problem when the water level dropped down about 1 inch below the top of the slats. Probably an obvious recommendation, but run the water level up to the material when cutting 65 amps. I always wondered what 85 amps would do to the Crossfire water pan even with the water level up to the material.
I did have it pretty full. Here is a video of the cut.
It would really suck to ow a hole in the bottom during a cut with your equipment under there.
Yeah it would for sure. I’m going to put down a 12 or 14 gauge stainless piece down to cover the bottom of the bed. That should give me enough protection.
My slats extend past the top of the water table. Are yours same height or below?
I have cut 1" plate at 105amps with water table as full as possible with no issues not even any discolouration of the stainless. Made me kinda nervous the first time. I had cut quite a bit on lower amperage prior without a cleanup, i suspect the slag on the bottom helped dissipate the heat.
Mine extended about 1/4" above the edges of the water table, maybe a little less. You can get the water level up there to the edge of the pan but it makes a freakin mess while cutting.
Ah ha! I knew there was a good reason for not cleaning it everytime I used it 
At least that’s going to be my story now 
Just destroyed my water pan by cutting 1/4" plate at 65 amps, 90ipm on a hypertherm 65. Changed out all water and slats yesterday (flipped stock slats), cleaned out all sludge, and water was to the absolute max it could be without spilling over. I can’t believe this just happened… DO NOT CUT @ 65 AMPS WITH A FRESH TABLE!!!
That’s really odd… i cut at 85 amps with my Powermax 85 the majority the time since new and have no signs of this on my table.
I did this to protect
Here is a shot after cutting 1/4" mild steel at 65 amps (I drained the table to take the shot). The slag falls right on the tile.
When you say destroyed… did you burn holes through it?
Yeah it burned through in a lot of spots. You can see the entire outline of all the cuts I made too.
What air pressure and cut speed?
I would say make a deeper water pan.
120PSI at the compressor but regulated down to 90PSI at the plasma cutter itself. Running 90ipm at 65amps on 1/4" plate. Water table was completely filled to the max which put the water level about 1/2" below the plate.
That seems like too much air pressure. Did you base that off of your manual?
Yeah Hypertherm calls for 85psi at the regulator just prior to entering the machine. I just checked and that is actually what mine is set at.
There goes my theory that too high gas pressure was letting the plasma “get through” the water with the air churning it, and overheat the pan.
