Reference specs, per-sheet math, and CNC plasma settings for 16 gauge (0.060″) mild steel — the workhorse thickness for brackets, signage, and small enclosures. Punch in your sheet price below for an instant per-part quote.
16 gauge is the sweet spot for a lot of small-shop plasma work — thick enough to hold its shape and take a weld, thin enough that even an entry-level hobby CNC table cuts it quickly without excessive dross or warping.
Plasma kerf is a different animal from laser kerf. Where a laser might lose 0.1–0.2mm to the cut, plasma routinely removes 1–1.5mm — on small or tightly-nested parts that difference is large enough to change your part count per sheet, not just your tolerance stack-up.
The same math the calculator above runs — worked out longhand, so you can sanity-check it against your own numbers.
Steel's scrap allowance runs higher than wood or acrylic mainly because of lead-in/lead-out tabs and the wider plasma kerf — both are fixed per-cut costs that hit small parts proportionally harder than large ones.
This is the material line only. A full shop quote adds machine time, labor, and finishing — KraftyQuote's cost engine rolls all of it into one number automatically, and plasma machine time includes pierce delay per part, which adds up fast on parts with many internal cutouts.
Ballpark CNC plasma settings for a clean through-cut — amperage stays low for thin material regardless of the torch's max rating; what changes across machine classes is achievable speed and consumable life. Always run a test cut and watch the arc.
That's just how plasma works — the arc itself has physical width and the process melts and blows out material rather than vaporizing a hairline, so 1–1.5mm kerf loss is normal even on a well-tuned machine. Budget your nesting spacing accordingly, especially on small parts.
It can, especially on parts with long unsupported cut lines or a lot of heat concentrated in one area — plan cut order to spread heat out (skip around rather than cutting one edge fully before the next) and use a slat table or fixturing on larger panels.
15–20% is a reasonable planning number once you account for lead-in/lead-out tabs, the wider kerf versus laser or waterjet, and drops around irregular shapes. Software-driven common-line nesting can bring this down meaningfully on straight-edged parts.
KraftyQuote's full cost engine handles materials, machine time, labor, and margin in one quote — free to build, no card required.