Used to eyeball my pierce delay at 0.8 seconds, now I watch the pilot arc instead

Dylan Barnes · 2026-10-12T04:15:05.332666+00:00

For my first two years on the table I just left pierce delay at 0.8 seconds on everything because that was what the manual sheet with my cutter guessed at. Then I burned through about 30 dollars of 14 gauge mild steel in one weekend, every hole came out with a keyhole taper because the torch was dropping before it punched clean through. A guy in Toledo who runs a 4x8 table for tractor parts showed me to set the delay by watching for the sparks to start spraying off the top of the plate instead of trusting a number. Now I run 1.3 seconds on 3/16 and the dross on my brackets dropped to almost nothing. What do you all set yours to when you switch from mild to stainless with the same tip?

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Used to eyeball my pierce delay at 0.8 seconds, now I watch the pilot arc instead | Cnc Plasma Cutting - Hub Chatter