Technical Jegs cut 40 plasma cutter

On the subject of safety equipment, protect your eyes when using a plasma cutter. I made a quick cut, didn't think about glasses and ended up at the optometrist with burned corneas. Uber painful. I have a pair of #6 dark glasses and a pair of flip down #6's on my safety glasses for when I toggle quickly between tools/tasks.

 

Beat me too it, I would buy a butt load of consumables and hope it would outlast them

 

I agree on the consumables. I had a cheapo one, and the company went out of business and no more parts. Also some of those can't be started by just pulling the trigger, you have to push down on the tip as well as the trigger. They are hard to see where you are cutting. The higher end ones you can also buy replacement torch assemblies like you can for a mig. As for eye safety a lot of the welding helmets are adjustable to be able to grind or plasma cut.

 

The Eastwood 40 I have does what I want it to. 3 year 100% replacement. And it shares the consumables with a common name brand. The manual even gives all the part numbers for the off the shelf parts. This is what sold me on it. So whenever I'm at the welding supply I can get whatever I need for it.

 

@Lloyd's paint & glass that a good duty cycle, you won’t out work it(IMO)

I use my torch goggles when cutting with mine. Be aware of your surroundings, they blow the spark farther than a torch does. I’ll post a pic later about the guide I made to keep the tip off the work. Crude, simple and effective.

 

I have a miller plasma cutter and it's been used a lot with no problems but it cost more than the one shown here, it doesn't get used daily but it does get used often.

 

I have a Harbor Freight plasma cutter that is about 9 yrs old, still works great!

 

The shop i worked in years ago had a simple guide on the torch with a hose clamp holding it in place. Just like 2 legs to drag on the workpiece.

 

Then I don’t need to post a pic. Originally I had the guides come to a point, next I made rounded ones that were easier to work with.

 

Ebay has several for $200 and up, I found one for $225 and they also sell the consumables. I bought a $125 dollar one off ebay around 3 or 4 years ago and more than got my money out of it. I'll send you a pic of the one I was looking ot.

 

That's interesting. When we chopped the top on Clarence my friend Eddie brought his plasma cutter to my house and we cut the top and tacked it back in place in one day. Eddie is a professional antique car restorer so he might have better equipment than the cheapies we're discussing, but we didn't have to dress any of the cuts. We were able to weld it right back together. The cuts were just about as perfectly square as you could imagine; no slag or "bead" there.

Eddie had a gizmo that he clamped onto the torch head that had two rounded feet on it. The feet touched the sheet metal and held the torch head at the perfect distance away. It sounds similar to what you described.

NOTE: this top chopping took place in 1992 and I would expect that equipment would be better today than it was back in the early days of plasma cutters.

NOTE #2: Clarence is the panel truck in my avatar. I never measured how many linear feet of cuts that we made (or that I had to weld back together) but it was a bunch.

 

For my 2 cents make sure it is pilot arc.

 

I bet it's a scratch start as they make no reference to it being a pilot start. Pilot start is a big selling point and I sure dont see them ignoring that fact especially in the advertising header or at least the specs.

I'd call and ask first.

 

If the consumables are good and you have the air pressure set right they will cut very clean and with no slag. Edit: that is if you don't try to cut too fast with it.

 

Consumables are $35 per kit. I read all 179 reviews and there were 6 negative. Who knows if they were operator error or not. One said the machine stopped working but Jegs was awesome and replaced it immediately. I downloaded the manual on it. Says nothing about pilot arc, but the instructions state that no less than 1/16" standoff and no more than 1/8", 60-70psi air pressure, pull the trigger and start cutting. I'm getting one.

 

In a time when we should support more American companies, I'd give a thumbs down on the china junk. Your money though.

 

A 60% duty cycle means it can run 6 minutes out of every 10 minutes. Those extra 4 minutes are cool down time, if you don't give it that extra 4 minutes to cool down between cuts, it won't live very long. My buddy didn't believe me, he killed his 60% duty cycle plasma cutter in a couple of months. Every time you exceed the 6 minutes of cut time, you take a little more life off of it, and that time adds up pretty quickly. It will cut along great, until it doesn't any more.

With the proper air pressure, and holding the tip off the surface, the nozzle and the starter tip will last a few hours of cutting time each, usually the nozzle will go bad first. The plasma cutters actually burn away the nozzle as it cuts, and the tip every time it starts a cut. As the cutting hole in the nozzle gets bigger, the cut becomes more sloppy (and reduces the thickness of material it will cut) until it won't cut at all.

Expect the cutting distance to be about 1/2 of the rating. It will probably cut the rated thickness, but as the thickness gets closer to the max, the slower it will cut. If you cutting 2 pieces of metal at the same time, both metal pieces and the air gap between the metal adds up towards the total cut, as does the distance the nozzle is off the surface.
What all comes in a consumable "kit" ? If 1 nozzle and 1 tip are in the kit, they are pretty high priced, if there are 3 or 5 of each, the $35 is pretty reasonable. It may also be packaged as either all nozzles or all tips.

The process of plasma cutting puts a ton of junk in the air. A few minutes of cut time will put a yellow haze into the air, and you don't want to breath that stuff in too much. 5 minutes of cutting means I open my 16' garage door to get fresh air into the shop. By the way, it will cut anything that conducts electricity for that full 3/8" and blow hot sparks several feet. Know what is under what your cutting, and what is in the path of the sparks. use eye protection (for both the light and the sparks) and wear gloves. Gene

 

One day I might consider this but I don't like the idea of little fireballs flying all over the place. For now I'll practice more with my Dillon/Henrob/Cobra unit.

 

Couple things, it’s hard to cut for 6 minutes straight. Maybe if you’re slicing out a floor pan, but that’s still a lot of cutting without stopping and getting in a different position.
Inside the shop I have a 55 gallon barrel with a grate over it I keep a bit of water in the bottom. I keep the piece I’m cutting ( with O/A or plasma) elevated with metal, etc. to save cutting into the grate. Sometimes you need to reposition the part to keep the cut over the barrel. But it’s pretty safe that way.

 

Mine came with a bag full of consumables. I've used very few of them up. IMO for the money it works great. I'm not a professional and don't use it a lot but as you note, for the money it's great to have around when you want to use it.

 

Unfortunately , like most things electronic , is there a US onshore manufacturer ?

 

If you don't buy China junk, what do you buy? It's all Chinese now! And if it says made in America on it, it's made here with shit sent from China! MURICA!!!

 

Guess we'll find out huh? Call me the Guinea pig

 

Scratch start or pilot arc?

 

To be honest i have no idea, but I'm gonna assume pilot arc. I took it out of the box and that's about as far as I got. The bodyshop has exploded and i don't have time to turn around lol. Just shut it down for the night. Everyday I'm not at the firehouse, I'm in that shop 12-14 hours a day

 

Well Lloyd's, there you go, cuttin up again...

 

I have a Hobart that someone gave me. It has never worked very well. I am guessing that's why they gave it to me.

Will consumables cause hard starts and cutting in and out? I didn't wanna drop the coin on consumables if it is a lost cause. I don't know much about them, but it sits most of the time because it isn't worth the hassle.
Kinda looks like this one.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/t...k4AB-NYzrcPfvkyzFRoaAiPtEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I'd guess that being a Hobart it's probably worth trying.

 

I keep meaning to. Not super high on the priority list. It's pushed up under a bench. I need to get a model number so I can research the consumables.

 

The tractor supply here sells Hobart, I'd bet they have everything you would need. That small Hobart plasma with the built in compressor is somewhere in the $850 range. This little cut 40 was like $239.