Why is 11 ga stainless cut rougher than mild steel

CrossFire ® PRO
1

I am looking to start a metal sculpture, and was thinking of doing it in 11 gauge stainless steel. But my test cuts in stainless versus mild steel are dramatically different as far as edge roughness and dross. I have done test pieces at varying speeds for each of these materials and get a very clean finish edge at 90ipm on the mild steel, but can’t get anything close to as smooth on the stainless at70ipm, 90 ipm or 110 ipm. it’s just much rougher than I would’ve expected.

Any suggestions on getting a really clean smooth cut on the stainless that I might try? I have a good Hypertherm cutter with new stop consumables running at 45amps.

2

You won’t match your steel results cutting stainless with air.

The chromium in stainless steel oxidizes during the cut making the cut black and rough. You will need to switch to a nitrogen or F5 gas setup to get good clean cuts on stainless.

@Bigdaddy2166 can get you dialed in.

3 Likes
3

I got reasonable results with stainless when I switched to fine-cut and decreased amperage and compressed air. It is still a bit on the ragged side compared to steel. Normal consumables results in a plain-ugly, un-usable cut.

2 Likes