There is currently a plethora of small, self contained plasma cutters on the market, such as:
Are these beasties any good? Anyone used one?
TIA
Positive article in Farmers Weekly recently. Stressed importance of an air compressor that is capable of well meeting the requirments of the plasma cutter.
The ones I'm looking (as in the link) have built in compressors.
Copied from their Ebay ad:-
FAN-COOLED INVERTER. IT USES AIR FROM A SEPERATE EXTERNAL AIR COMPRESSOR ( Not supplied )
COMPRESSED AIR CAPACITY REQUIRED IS 100 l/min. AIR PRESSURE REQUIRED IS 4 - 5 bar.
Always read the small print, or in this case rather large!! -:)
Grunff, It doesn't.
"THE MACHINE IS A SINGLE PHASE, PORTABLE, FAN-COOLED INVERTER. IT USES AIR FROM A SEPERATE EXTERNAL AIR COMPRESSOR ( Not supplied ). "
DG
Never buy a plasma cutter with a "cuting capacity". They have three capacities: "neat", "ragged", and "severed with an axe" Each is about twice the other, so the _usable_ capacity of a "12mm" machine is probably only 1/8" sheet. An honest description really needs to indicate what they're talking about. Also you can derate these to half for aluminium, or to a quarter for copper (both hard to cut, because of their high thermal conductivity).
Efficiency varies hugely with design smarts. So the old "trustworthy" names aren't really much good now, and there's certainly scope for a cheap new model to perform well. (one reason why curmudgeonly old Yanks are always talking rubbish about their obsolescent welders). Hypertherm is still (IMHE) the best around.
You've also got the consumables to worry about, the cost, accessibility and most of all their lifetime. Lifetime in particular has a 4x or 5x variation between good and bad machines. Imperfectly dried air supply is another 2x.
It _might_ be good - but I'd want to use one first.
Sorry, you're quite correct - I linked to the wrong one.
Wow, that would make this "6mm" machine only good for 1/16" sheet:
Might have to make a trip to the welding shop and see what they have to demo.
Thanks.
In message , Grunff writes
I noticed that the first link says that:- IT IS VERY LIGHT AND PORTABLE AT ONLY 12Kg. It is fitted with a carrying strap, suggesting but not stating that it could be used almost anywhere i.e. maybe a 13A socket for the supply?
Whereas the second one includes a spec' that has the mains fuse at 16A and also a max cutting depth of 6mm which with dingbats earlier comment could make it a little less appealing.
There again I had some 1/8th inch steel plate cut with a professional one last week, I needed a 12" dia' plate and didn't fancy cutting it by hand! The results were superb, pity I can't justify one for the workshop.
I used one to cut some 10mm plate about 3 years ago, and have wanted one ever since. Inverter machines have come down in price quite a bit, I just need to be sure it'll do what I want, and has reasonable spares availability.
The message from Grunff contains these words:
"Starting bid is BELOW COST, List Price is OVER £1,200.00 !!!" when it's on "Buy it now".
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