Plasma cutter for the poor

Ok I have been looking for a decent plasma cutter for a few weeks that isnt going to kill my pocketbook but still is going to be ok for what I need all it needs to do is cut up to 1/4'' and clean cut sheet metal. I have seen harbor fraights got one but I dont realy trust most of the stuff they sale allthough I have been useing thier 220 mig and its not too bad.Anyone got any advice on a plasma cutter for under $600.

 

ive found welders cheap, but havent yet seen many plasma cutters under that price, or id have one, lol!

 

great for panel replacement rust repair, I own that plasma cutter its good but not for thick metal. id say no on 1/4'' or more.

 

doh, try craigslist, under tools and equipment. should be some used ones

 

Cheapest I have found there so far is over 1g but I'm hopefull

 

Anybody know anything about the harbor freight ones?

 

Try going over to the Hobart Welders discussion forum. There's a good bunch of guys over there, and they don't mind talking about other brands, etc. Amazingly, Hobart doesn't seem to mind either.

You'll obviously get the "All HF stuff is junk" but if anyone has direct experience with them, someone over there will.

-Brad

 

dont know anyone with one, so i cant say. sometimes you can find name brands there at a discount. thats where i got my hobart welder.

 

I've been using a Harbor Freight one for metal 1/4 or under. I wouldn't go past the 1/4 inch. It gets pretty sloppy and requires alot of grinding afterwards, but it does get thru the metal. So far its held up.

 

cool, now i know too. thanx

 

How long have you been using it?

 

How long or how much have you used it and what are the system requirements/specs on the HF plasma cutter?

 

Went to Harbor Freight awhile ago to buy a shoplight. Asked the clerk if I could plug it in to see how bright it was. She said they were not allowed to plug anything in! Wow, says a lot of what they think of their products or employees, or both. Against my better judgment I bought it. Got it home to a permissible outlet, plugged it in and Voila, if I held the cord just right where it entered the case it worked. Never again.

 

I use it about once a week on average. Just doing some small cuts for brakcets that I'm fabing up. I wouldn't rely on it for a daily machine. I don't thing HF stuff lasts all that long most of the time. The machine I have runs on 220. Probably a fair machine for the hobbyist but not much else. Hope that helps.

 

Save your money and buy a good one. I have a Miller 375 extreme, which cost about $1200. It will run off of either 110 or 220V. I've cut up to 1/2", plugged into 220V. It cuts thick stuff really slow, but it looks alot better than I could do with oxy acetylene.

I wouldn't buy anything from Harbor Freight that wasn't intended to be disposable. The crap they sell even smells cheap.

Dave

 

i picked up a hypertherm powermax 1000 off craigslist for 1000 bucks. guy bought it for his shop, then decided he didnt need it, needed quick money.

 

I fix welding equipment for a living, I'd stick with a Lincoln, Hypertherm or a Miller if I were you (Hobarts are fine as well, they're made by Miller). The offshore stuff is junk, often gets discontinued and can be really hard to get parts for, I don't know how many times I've had people come in looking for parts for offshore machines because the place where they bought the machine is gone. Thermal Dynamics, ESAB and Century are fairly decent for inexpensive product and they're reasonably well supported.

Try Craig's List, Auctions or the Classifieds for used stuff, just make sure you try it before you buy it.

Also make sure your electrical can handle the load the equipment will draw. For example, a Lincoln Pro-Cut 55 Plasma (good up to 1/2") will draw about 60amps, a typical household only has 100amp service running into it (you're going to need a compressor to supply air to most plasmas as well).

Just about every piece of equipment has an equipment tag on it which tells you what voltages it will run on and how much it will draw on each voltage. It will also tell you whether or not it needs three phase or single phase power (you're house is single phase.)

 

Good advice Droo. I'd suggest putting a bug in your welding supply guys ear that you would like to pick up a decent used unit if the price was right.
I've seen a couple of decent quality smaller units for sale around here by guys who bought them thinking they were going to do artsy crafty metal signs and cutouts and found out that they wern't all that great at it. It's always a good thing to have the cash available to be able to jump on one if it comes up too as they usually sell pretty quick.

 

A Miller rep teased Ryan and the board with a "what kind of discount would it take" question about a year or so ago (1 post) and was never heard from again. I'd still like a plasma cutter from a reputable US maker but it won't be a Miller. I don't like being teased.

 

yeah, i remember that little tease. guess he couldn't stand the thought of all that money headed his way.

 

Silly question, but do you have adequate air and electric to run a plasma cutter and your air compressor at the same time without tripping circuits?

I had the same requirements but crappy electric and ended up with a hobart 250A that's got a built in compressor and runs on household current. Shop and you can find them for $800.

The good is it's a great little cutter, and hugely popular with friends because it's quite portable.

The bad is it's not a fan of rusty metal. Very ground sensitive. It'll cut thru a body panel with 3 layers of paint like butter, but something like an ole rusty frame it's either gonna be a brutally dirty cut with several flame-outs, or you're gonna chase the cut path with a grinding disc to silver metal before cutting.

1/4" new metal is a rough cut and slow, but it does it. I personally don't use 1/4" that often, so when I do it's OK to have to grind the edges back because of the roughness. 1/8" handles most of what I do, and it works great at that thickness.

good luck

 

some thing to look at this the avalibility of the comsumables, tips and such, i know that allot of the tool maker brands , (snap-on mac etc) use thermal dynamics shit.the trucks sell the same parts for 3 times the cost if you where to go into a welding shop. i would buy something atleast 1 step bigger then you expect to be working on. alos keep in mind the rating of plasmas. there the cut thickness and the peircing thickness, it may cut 1/4 but only peirce 3/16".save your money and buy a good unit.

 

I believe it was a salesman going out on a ledge trying to make something happen, but could not convince those above him. Not a calculated "tease" for marketing. With the economy slowing and the monster garage & home built chopper phenom cooling off, don't be suprised if their view on discounting will change.

 

i had a HyperTherm 380. paid something like $1400 for it. loved it untill one day, for no apparent reason it just stopped working. took it in and was told the mother board had fried and that it was "too costly to repair". ofcourse it was about a month past the waranty experation. i was NOT impressed. i'm not sure if i would trust another one even though i have a friend that has had the same one for a few years and had no issues with it.

but then again that one was'nt cheap. not sure i would trust a cheaper one either.

 

I tried a HF $600 one. It lasted no time. I replaced it with a Thermal Arc cutmaster it was only $900 new with a three yr warranty. This cuts so much cleaner for very little more money.
Dennis

 

I bought one like this. Its crap. The duty cycle is terrible. Only cuts about 4 feet in 1mm sheet before it stops to catch its breath. Its going back on ebay and I'll buy a decent one.

 

Got one I bought from Harbor Freight several years ago. I paid for a membership in their "inside track" club. Periodically they send out a flyer
with clearance, overstock, etc.
This one came from one of those flyers. It is 230 volt 3 phase 35 amp, which I have in my shop. I think somebody in HF purchasing fucked up when they bought this model. How many shops that have 3 phase buy from HF? Not too many, I expect. But I have it and I buy a little stuff from them , so I bought it.
Works quite well on 5/16"-3'8" steel with a steady hand and a guide fence! I have cut 3/8" aluminum with it, but it takes a bit of clean up grinding afterwards. Aluminum is harder to cut with plasma than steel, because the base stock conducts heat away from the cut so much faster.
I don't use it often, just hobby work now that the prop shop is gone, but so far so good.
Dave

 

Thermal Dynamics invented the plasma cutter. Thermal Dynamics manufactures the cutting torches used by many other leading brands. Which brand do you think we use in our shop 8 hrs. a day?

Why do we have more than one?

Why do I use the same kind at my home shop?

Because they work well, hold their value and use reasonably priced consumables, which we definitely consume.

It's your hard earned cash. Spend it wisely.

 

If your interested in an import unit, http://www.parkermetalworking.com/ has gotten a decent reputation on a couple of the off road boards.

 

Square D (Schneider Electric) has an electronics repair center now. You can send them almost any board and they will repair it for less than a new one. At work we've used them many times with excellent results.
http://www.automation.com/content/schneider-electric-launches-expanded-automation-repair-services