Plasma-cut 18ga steel wall art - 2'x2' - made using LowRider 3 plasma rig

Quick pic of my first plasma cut project, finished except for polyurethane protection from rust. Video of the cut and other helpful details as soon as I can get to it. Cut from a 2’ x 4’ sheet of 18ga steel. 20 amps on cutter, 30 PSI on air. Art created in CorelDraw, exported as SVG, imported into Fusion for CAM, outputted using “PlasmaC” Post Processor.

I learned so much. The cut recovery tools in QTplasmaC are outstanding.

Kudos to @kd2018 and @vicious1 for their amazing help. I’m so excited.

Link to my build thread for my plasma LR3:

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Do you know how many CFM you’re using? I’d like to make mine a plasma cutter but don’t have a whole lot of space in the garage for a big air compressor.

And nice job on that sign- it looks awesome and first try too!

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I’m using a Kobalt brand, 26 gallon, “quiet mode” compressor from Lowe’s. It’s listed as rated for 4.5 SCFM at 90 psi, but this cut required only 30 psi, and I don’t exactly know how many CFM (or SCFM) that lower pressure runs.

I know two or three things.

  • You want the “quiet mode” compressor if you can get it.
  • You want the bigger tank if you can get it.

I’ve also read that taking steps to make sure the compressed air is particularly dry is important. One low-tech and very successful way to do this is to build a copper pipe structure with an array of bleed valves, and “cracking” those valves open briefly blows out water condensed on the inside of the copper pipes. Many videos show this being built and used. I plan to do so, but I will need to wait a bit until I get a bit more cash flow.

Thanks!

Great piece of art, am so much interested in building a plasma cnc, kindly share information on necessary hardware and software

Thanks! Full specs and details are in that link in the original post at the top!

For convenience, here it is again:

Also, I have videos on YouTube about the build — stored in a “playlist” here:

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