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Cheap Plasma Cutters?

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Sea.dog:
£80 for a cutter with a three year warranty isn't a bad buy. Quite a few members on my other forum have them and are very happy with the way that they perform.

vtsteam:
Hi Rod, I wouldn't be considering plasma cutting at all if the cost was more than a couple hundred bucks. So it's not a matter of choosing a better brand.

My question is whether it's better to do without or spend that couple hundred. So far it looks useful to me. I do plan on hand use, don't ever cut anything over 1/2" -- much more often cutting 1/8" sheet metal, and have conventional torches for thick stuff anyway. Also hand grinder and metal cutting bandsaw.

It looks to me like for occasional on-the-spot cutting of reasonably thin stock it could be quite handy to have, and its small footprint in a shop, high portability and the possibility of using 110v conventional outlets (as well as 220V) are attractive.

But what I'd like to hear about from you is what were the problems you experienced with yours, what brand was it, was your reason for purchase it CNC rather than hand use, etc. In other words details. If you have time to elaborate that is. Thanks!

vtsteam:
Seadog thanks for your info, btw.  :beer:

If I do get one the next question is which one to get. There are many different brands, and I don't think they are all exactly like. Other than the internals, I'm noticing that they seem to vary in what is included.

I see at least two different torch types. One has the trigger on the bottom with safety, and is a unified blue or orange plastic handle. Another has a thinner two piece black plastic handle with the trigger on top, the top trigger is just a plastic switch zip-tied on.

Also, for the dual 110v-220v types I'm looking at, some come with a short adapter cord for plugging into either type US outlet as needed. Most do not, and only have a 220v  plug on the end of the unit cord. Some have no plug at all and you have to purchase one. If you have to buy a plug, and also make up an adapter cord, you could easily spend an additional $30 here in the US. Plus the waste of time chasing down parts and assembling.

Also, they vary in how much expendanbles are included. Some package 3 of each type, some 5.

A very few of these plasma units are barebones -- only the torch and plasma unit in the box. You have to carefully read the description to know exactly what you're getting in all of these.

Then there's the output rating -- 30 to 50 (55?) which seems roughly related to the title "Cut__". But not necessarily.

ALL of these units are priced between 180 and 200 US. So, the question is, besides whether to buy one, which brand and from whom? Amazon and Ebay have the most for online purchase (and I'm not going out shopping these days with the Covid numbers as they are). But it seems like there must be a dozen brands at least.

vtsteam:
One other question to all.

I read open circuit voltage is roughly 100 v -- I assume that's at the torch. If so, and if they tend to rate the 110V input mode as producing 30-37 amps at the torch, how is that possible on a normal 15 or 20A 110 volt outlet? Unless there's a big voltage drop on pulling the trigger. And if that's the case why specify open circuit voltage?

I mean if it was 50V and 30A at the torch, and you were using a 110V 20A outlet, and it was a very efficient inverter, I'd say that is possible. That's 1500 watts out of a 2200 watt supply.

But I don't understand how the figures given add up for 3700 watts out of that same supply....

awemawson:
Steve, I've been blown away by the versatility of my CNC Plasma table. So many things that frankly previously I wouldn't have attempted are now SO easy.

Silly things like profiling a sheet of steel to be bent into a box or other form - I can virtually go fom a CAD drawing to the finished article and no marking out etc. And if the design needs tweaking, a tweak and do it again !

For years I've had a hand held plasma (Hypertherm Powermax 900) and it only got used very occasionally (can't draw a straight line!), but now the CNC with a Hypertherm  45 is a frequently used tool.

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