Teaching Plasma - Need Help Getting Started

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glgsales
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Teaching Plasma - Need Help Getting Started

Post by glgsales »

I volunteer at the local high school here in MN and they have a Plasma Cam and the teachers are ,they only have 2 who teach in 6 different class rooms, too busy to even think about teaching how to use this or to even use it themselves. So I have been helping them in their daily tasks ,which has included using the PlasmaCam to cut out variuos pieces as needed and trying to get together some sort of lesson plan for the more advanced students. Anyone have any ideas on how to get this going ,i would really appreciate your input.
Thanks
Gary L Greco
Prior Lake High School
plasmanewbie
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Re: Teaching Plasma Cam in School

Post by plasmanewbie »

Hi Gary
That's great that you are helping out with the schools program. What is it that they are trying to teach the kids? Plasma cutting is not likely the what the class is all about. Are they teaching the kids AutoCad? I have a local school that teachs AutoCad then let's the kids cut their design so they have something to show. The only reason they bought a plasma table was because it was cheaper than a cnc mill for a 2D design class.
glgsales
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Re: Teaching Plasma Cam in School

Post by glgsales »

No we don't teach auto cad in metals.
They have those separate.
We only have 1 computer in metals on the plasma cam to work with. The plasma cam people have granted station license for our cad room to use if we want to. but it isn't liked to the plasmacam currently. That class is also being used most every period for other subjects like ,remedial math and English. :roll:
We would like a project that the kids could pick out and in groups of 3-4 at most, set up the cut process and cut the files out and assemble them .
Weld them together into some kind of useful yard art , other project.
teaching them the plasma cam program isn't even a choice here. The shop teachers are too busy and one of the teachers refuses to put any extra time in he isn't paid extra for. He is also close to retiring and why learn knew exciting technology when you can just get by.. :roll:
So as you can see I am left to get involved with the other teacher and figure something out. They will input something that will work and is practical for the curriculum .

I am looking for a project that i can see will meet the needs of some use of the setting the plasmacam, cutting metal that can be assembled or not into a project to be finished by painting ,staining or leaving raw.
Making a new class might work in the future but for now we need to get this into use so it will keep the ball rolling towards more cnc type classes.

Hope that makes sense,I actually had a whole page written out and then hit something on my key board that erased it all... don't ya love it :lol:

Thanks for any help here guys..

Gary Greco
Prior Lake High School
Jetdctr
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Re: Teaching Plasma Cam in School

Post by Jetdctr »

Well since it gets pretty cold up your way, some fire rings would be a good idea.

If you have a slip roller in your shop, that would be a fairly easy project. You can make them with a welded seam, or a bolt together seam.
glgsales
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Re: Teaching Plasma Cam in School

Post by glgsales »

Yes we have done a couple , in fact have a great flame pattern I cut into one and we bolted it together . The other one we made was an elk scene for one of the students . we made some simple brackets for it. Time became an issue, is always an issue...lol

Thanks for your reply :D
Gary
glgsales
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Re: Teaching Plasma Cam in School

Post by glgsales »

Part of our problem with the plasma cam has been getting the settings just right.
Because get a lot of our steel donated to us from Continental Machines aka Do-All . We get some metal that appears to have a lot more nickel in it than normal mild steel. We have some metal that is very shiny and doesn't rust hardly at all even outside.

So trying to be consistent with our cuts ,lets say speed and power can be a little frustrating for me and i have a lot of time to tinker with it.
I can't imagine the cost of this if we had to purchase every piece of steel to practice on or "try" to cut something we haven't yet attempted.

i have been on other forums trying to get some sort of standard for say mild steel at 20 gauge - to 1/4 plate on what the speed and amps should be set to . I have some specs for cutting mild steel ,but as i said some of our stuff is going to be more cut and see I think.

Something like that posted in here would really help make a foundation ,or starting point for plasma cutters to use when setting up their machines.

Thanks again
TammyVB
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Re: Teaching Plasma Cam in School

Post by TammyVB »

The welding class at Capital High School in Helena, MT made different types of hunting knives last year---they have a plasmacam. The kids really got into it and made some great stuff. The teacher is Loren Higgins. His e-mail address is: lhiggins@helena.k12.mt.us

He is a pretty helpful guy and could probably give you lots of ideas.
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