I used the Crossfire for the first time this weekend, cutting 1/8" 304 Stainless at 45 amps. The table is filled with well water with Plasma Green 9010 mixed @ 5%.
There was a slight coating of mill oil in the water tray and slats, and I applied a small amount of red RTV around the drain fitting.
I ended up scooping this stuff out with a piece fine perforated metal (car speaker grill) between programs. It stained my hands badly.
Can I expect this brown stuff every time I use the machine, or every time I cut Stainless?
I have a similar looking residue (although not as thick) whenever I cut in general. It seems to go away as the table sits, or better yet sink to the bottom.
Completely normal.
You can see some of it below the steel as I had just cut this out yesterday -
@Imagineer Good Question! I was wondering the same thing, I get the same stuff in my table and have seen it in a lot of photos and videos. I have only cut milt steel and I haven’t seen it as thick a you have.
Just because it is normal, doesn’t answer the question of what is it?
I was thinking maybe it had something to do with the mill scale but if you get the same thing cutting stainless steel that throws the theory out the window.
So, I became curious enough to search the internet for an answer. The best I could come up with was that it is vaporized metal, along with any oil or grease from the material that was being cut. It seems that people cutting without a water table complain about a Brownish/Black that forms on everything.
