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PlasmaCam downdraft Chute

I have been trying to get this PlasmaCam table up and running for months now.

It has been one thing after another conspiring to delay firing this thing up.

But now I am pretty close to being able to make some parts.

The PlasmaCam is set up and I am fabricating a downdraft chute for it so that I dont mess up the nice clean speckled epoxy floor in my friends building.

My plan is to make a flange that accepts a 8" utility blower along with  some flex hose attached to the blower to exhaust fumes outside.



I am fabricating this downdraft chute out of 18 ga cold rolled steel and my plan was to skip weld the whole thing out using 2 inch welds on 2"centers.

Then I got to thinking about just how bulky and hard to handle the chute would be once it was welded together.

So I bought some piano hinge at Home Depot and decided to try to fabricate the chute in 2 pieces.

If I ever need to move the Plasmacam, it will be pretty easy to cut tack welds loose and then fold the chute up.

PlasmaCam chute - Cutting Sheet Metal with a Diablo metal blade

I own several plasma cutters.

But for a job like this, sometimes it makes more sense to cut the sheet using a Diablo blade and a circular saw.

first of all, cut speed is pretty near the same.

Second, There is absolutely zero prep work needed prior to welding with a saw cut.

With a plasma cut, there is dross and oxidation that needs to be dressed off before welding....especially tig welding.


Welding some outside corners

I was planning on welding the whole chute together and filming some outside corner joints using 2 different mig welders.

But I decided to go with the piano hinge idea.

So lets take a break from the welding project and weld some outside corner joints in 18 ga, 11 ga, and 1/4" thick steel.

115 volt mig welder comparison

For the welding demonstration in this video, I used an Everlast imig 140e

along with an AHP alpha-mig 140.


the Everlast 140 imig is an inverter style mig welder while the AHP is a transformer style mig welder.

There are differences in the arc as well as the capability of these 2 machines.

Watch the video and see the differences between inverter and transformer mig welders.

biggest difference is the Everlast inverter had power to spare.

see more welding project videos

See plasmacam plasma cutting tables

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