wanting ideas and opinions on which is the best budget priced plasma cutters available ...something 40-50 amps, dual voltage....any ideas or comments appreciated.....thanks
Bought a 40 amp plasma cutter from Eastwood. I've used it up to 1/4" with good results. 3 year warranty. Got it new for $450 on sale. In store purchase plus 10% Chicago sales tax, yikes. Perishables available through Eastwood or local welding supply. Have had no problems with it so far.
Generally, plasma cutters easily cut at about 1/2 what they are rated at. They will cut at the max, but very slowly. When considering a plasma cutter, know where you can get the consumables, and how much they will cost. You use a lot of consumables over the life of the machine. I also want to know if I can get it fixed in my local area, the last thing I want is to have to send a non-functioning unit off to some place a long way away. If that would be the case, it better be really cheap. I got 12 years of nearly daily use out of the Century Plasma I first bought with few issues, right up until it died. The Hypotherm I replaced the Century with was not cheap, but man it can cut! Gene
Don’t buy a cheap one, unless you want add that to the price of the one you will replace it with later. Gene is dead on with the 1/2 thickness comment. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
I'm a fan of finding a name brand unit that is lightly used. I bought a Hypertherm 1000 (spec says up to an inch...but like others have said...it'll cut it, but very slowly) from an artist that was using it to cut steel for his metal sculptures. I paid less than 1/2 price of a new unit (which put it at about the same or a little more than the budget units that were available at the time). Consumables are readily available at my welding shop. I don't use it often, but when I do it's a pleasure.
Keep an eye on industrial auction sites (K-Bid, etc). Good, used, High quality units can often be found cheaply. Make sure they are set up for single phase and not 3 phase. I am not a fan of cheap Chinesium tools, from Harbor, Eastwood, or any number of other sources. And it is always fun to press something older back into service (I think that is what this place is all about....)
Ive got the Eastwood as well. No issues with 1/4 inch. Have used it on 1/2 and it went fine, but just for testing as I have no need that heavy duty. Alot of metal work / sculpture type stuff. Def need a good dry air source. Wouldn't also mind picking up a plasma cnc table to run the torch i got, though I probably just need more skill. Playing around now with using a laser cutter to cut plywood jigs for more complicated cuts plasma cuts.
The biggest thing people do is buy too small a plasma cutter and regret it later. Or buy an offbrand and regret it later. They don't see the overall picture of reliabilty (no service center locally) (no parts) (outdated machine). I bought a "no name" brand about 25 years ago. It sucked and I quit trying to cut anything. Sat in a corner. One day I decided to get a new PC and I researched the crap out of it. I settled on a Hypertherm. They are the main manufacturer of good quality PC machines. They create the new tech and own the patents...which they lease to other manufacturers. At the time I bought mine, they offered a rebate if you traded in an old machine. Think I got $300. Sent the ID plate and the torch in so I didn't have to ship the whole junk machine. Few years later a friend offered me a Snap On PC in trade for a tool I had. Said he didn't use it anymore. Turned out to be a second rate machine made by "Century" with a Snap On label on it. Bought some new consumables and plugged it in. Poof........smoke everywhere. Was gonna give it to my son. I traded that one in too. Hypertherm has been around a long time and they are good machines. Try something like this. https://www.weldingsuppliesfromioc....MIuprV4uPG5AIVicBkCh0T9wYiEAYYASABEgJP6PD_BwE Its worth the difference, and if you ever do sell it you can get a good deal of your money back. Much better than buying a used machine and having to spend money to repair it.....money you won't get back. In the picture, I'm using a cheap HF cart and modifying it for the PC. Its best to keep moisture out of the air line, so I was mounting a secondary water separator/filter (HF) on the inside back of the cart. Its not shown in the picture. I mounted it on the back so all air went thru it before gatting to the PC.
Just don't buy one. For me it's been a tool that almost never gets used. I almost always have a better tool in the arsenal for the job I'm doing. If it's sheet metal, a hand snip, hand-held electric shears, pneumatic cut off disc or a Beverly shear virtually always work better than the plasma cutter. If it's thicker material, I go for my bandsaw, right angle grinder, cut off disc, or sawzall. The last time I tried to use the plasma cutter was when I was cutting the front frame section off my 59 Edsel to clip it with a Fatman stub. I thought, oh great, I can just lop this off with the plasma cutter. WRONG. While it did cut fine through 1 half of the boxed rail, I just wanted to chop it off. I grabbed my Sawzall with a good blade on it and had a much finer, more precise cut, through both sides of the chassis, without blowing hot, molten steel all over my shop. Plus you always need to dress the metal after cutting it with the plasma because you inevitably get molten hangers off the piece you want. If you just saw or disc cut it, you don't have to deal with that really. The plasma cutter certainly has it's place, but it's one of those tools where the idea sounds more useful than it is in real life. If you really want a plasma set up, do yourself a favor and just buy a good O/A setup, or even a Cobra torch. Then not only can you cut like a plasma, you can weld, braze, and heat metal to shape and bend it. Much more versatile and much cheaper.
I vote for the HyperTherm plasma cutter. My wife does Metal Art (which includes cutting saw blades, not the softest material to work with) so we first purchased a Model 30 and after a couple of years we thought we should update to a more robust machine. I went in to the local welding shop (Linweld in CB IA) and they gave us almost the org purchase price of the Model 30 for the Model 45. We are sold on HyperTherm...but to be fair we've never tried anything else. They also have a better reliability factor than the competitors also (that came from the staff at the shop)
Honestly, Joefomopar kinda nailed it. For the garage hobbyist , the plasma cutter is rarely the go to tool for most of the things I do. My right angle grinder with cut off wheel, portaband and sawzall gets a lot of use. Since my plasma cutter is basically a toy for me I opted to go cheap. If I had a fab shop where I used it all the time I would certainly spend the big money on it. For the budget minded I feel that I made the right choice.
What ever plasma you get put a drier in the air line or you will chew out your cutting tip very fast. We had a cheap one ,it was a poor cutter and heavy on power use. When the compressor came on you had to stop cutting or you popped the circuit breaker . Got a bit bigger and brand name one and its great to cut with 3/8 plate is easy and no more popped circuit breakers. Recently cut 12ft of 3/8 plate with out a stop.
For most home hobbyists, a plasma cutter is a luxury. For most projects I use my chop saw or cut-off wheels in a 5" grinder more. Where one shines is cutting stainless, non-ferrous metals (particularly aluminum), or thicker coated/plated steel. Works well if making long or irregular cuts too. Actually less messy compared to cut-off wheels if making a bunch of cuts or long cuts. If your skills are up to it, leaves far less slag than a cutting torch. With that said, while I may not use mine for long periods, I'm glad I have it when I do. But if I had to give up any one fab tool I own, this would be the one that would go.
For me , I have used a plasma cutter and torch. But if you have a steady hand , again for me, I can cut smoothly with a torch. I figure the money saved can buy a lot of extra tools or hot rod parts.
I have a hypertherm 45xp, band saw , cold cut saw and a torch. Fairly proficient with all of them. But for coveince, clean cut, low heat in the metal, ability to cut all shapes, plasma can't be beat. It has opened up new ways for me to build things, quicker. Sure, cold cut saw is my go to for square edge cuts, but love the plasma Sent from my LM-V405 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have a Lincoln ProCut 60 I would never buy a big unit again as you turn up the power the life of the consumables go out the door. If its over 3/8" use a torch
Been using a Harbor Freight 40 amp for 4 years now. No problems at all. Sent from my SM-G930T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
At work, the boss bought a cheap plasma torch from a tool company that went bankrupt. Worked poorly. Then he bought a good one. Much better deal.
I bought a Jasic Viper Cut 30, made in Kent, WA. It cuts up to 3/8 with 70 psi air. Easy to buy consumables, dual voltage, 800 bucks. I am just getting used to it but I used it to cut some boxing plates for the front end of my truck frame. I have a portaband saw and various cutoff tools/wheels but this took 3 seconds using a short chunk of 2x4 as a guide I learned a cool trick after this cut, hold the torch at a 45 degree angle and you are weld ready without having to grind a trough. I bought some round patterns and some squares that make it a lot easier to use. This is a fun little project I did last weekend, I added a 41 mercury clock to the glove box door on my 41 PU, a cut that I could have made with a drill and a dremel but not a band saw, torch or cutoff wheel. Again, it took seconds. I could have got those corners a bit tighter, should have practiced on some scrap metal but a little body work will tighten it up. The grinding marks are from the studs I welded through the door to mount the clock and removing the factory knob holes. The diet root beer is from another project that includes Captain Morgan's rum. Here is another cut I made the other day, I am replacing a rusty section of the truck's frame. I had the fab shop that bent the channels also stamp the smaller holes but they missed a larger hole that I decided to add. They actually missed 2 but I need to weld in there and it is going to get cramped. Using my circle patterns I found one the right size, clamped it in place and cut a 2 inch hole in seconds that required only a round hand file and a quick pass with the 2 inch angle grinder to prep it for primer. I may add the other hole once the welding is done on the inner frame prior to welding the outer cover on. I could have done that on my drill press as this is not welded in yet but this was faster and more fun. Like my old basketball coach used to say "practice makes perfect only if it is perfect practice".
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