Nitrogen or Carbon Dioxide as gas?

[Wild Turkey]

After a REAL bad experience with plasma cutter setting stuff on the other side on fire I got to wondering if you could use N2 or C02 gas with a plasma cutter?

My idea is that when you're cutting near flamable stuff the inert gas would hold down any burning near the cut.

Not a full "fire extinguisher" but just enough to reduce any smoldering etc near the cut?:confused:

Yes, I know it would need to be "well ventilated" to avoid operator extinguishing but I try to stay above the cut surface:rolleyes:

[Pumpkinhead]

Nitrogen can be used with a hand held plaz, but i'm not crystal clear on what you started ablaze or what you want to accomplish.

as an extinguishing agent as part of the cutting process? no, the velocity of the exiting gas (plasma) though N2 and inert, causes rapid mixing with the surrounding air which is already >70% N2. and if you meant in the general vicinity, like errant sparks, well of course not, for that to work you'd have to cut in a room filled with nitrogen, a bit hard to work in.

CO2 is used in large plasma cutters as a assist/shield gas, but not as a plasma gas

[Rocky D]

It would be better to do your cutting into a pan of water.

[Hotfoot]

I do mine over a 16 gallon lubricant drum (it could just as well be a 55 gal drum, etc.) with both ends cut out (and used as art projects), I then just slip a scrap BBQ, Oven, or refrigerator grill over it and cut away. the grills are freebies from the scrap pile at the Thrift Store, and I just put them in my scrap when they got too cut up. Works great, and all the dross , fire, sparks, etc, just blow into the drum. Pick up the drum when finished, sweep it up real tidy. :)

[tigster]

i took a piece of bed frame, cut it up with o/a, and welded it back together to make a "cutting table" that just fits across my metal wheelbarrow with about 2 or 3 inches of water in the bottom of it. dump out the water when i'm done. very handy.

[Rocky D]

Here's a couple I built...the slats are 1" flat bar that is removable as it get burnt up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/RockyD/My%20Favorite%20Tools/MVC-771F.jpg

This is a dry one, that I made for work.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/RockyD/My%20Favorite%20Tools/MVC-502F.jpg

Another interesting thing in the above picture is the ground strip on the floor, that is grounded to the welders, so I don't have to run a ground cable on the floor.