This was my first time using a plasma cutter, so there was a lot to learn and many mistakes to be made.
I started by creating my design in Adobe Illustrator. I chose something simple, two holes and a slot to create a fictional bracket as this represented a shape I may make at some point in my career.
Next, I started the plasma cutter, and this is where I began to see problems. The first is that the plasma cutter was not calibrated, and therefore would not reach the proper cutting height for the sheet of steel. It took a lot of time and assistance to have the height set properly. Additionally, the piece of metal was warped, this was much faster to fix and was done through some weights.
The next problem I ran into was that my file was not set up correctly. Somehow I had included 3 overlapping copies of my slot, which was not noticeable until I started cutting, where the plasma cutter traveled the path three times before moving on to the other steps. The computer connected to the machine did not have Adobe Illustrator installed, so to save the time of moving back and forth I used the “Hold” command on the interface to pause the machine after it cut the slot, then used “Jump” to manually switch to the next feature to be cut. This was tedious to do for both diamonds, but it resulted in much better edge quality for the slot.
Both of my final pieces were cut from close to the edge of the sheet, and there seems to be an increase in the dross on the side close to the edge.
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The next step was to use the angle grinder to remove the dross and sharpen the external edges. Because I used steel, the pieces were held down using the magnetic chuck. A file was also used to smooth out all internal edges.
The diamonds were then placed into the sandblaster for an even finish. The diamond on the right has been sandblasted.
The final step was to paint the pieces. I used white spray paint, but I misunderstood the instructions and did not allow enough time for the paint to dry before flipping over to the other side. The final result included some cardboard fibers embedded into the paint. The final product would also have been improved if I had found a way to let the parts hang freely while I applied paint to both sides at the same time.
A picture of my painting area after cleaning is shown below:
