Finally purchased a plasma cutter.

[alloy]

Good write up.

I bought a plasma cutter today, but didn't buy the Yes cutter. Got the lotos and I'll tell you why.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255364852474

Plasma Cutter Non-Touch Pilot Arc LTP5000D Dual Voltage 110V/220V Compact Cutter

Shop now for your one stop metal cutting solutions. Lotos Technology offers quality portable plasma cutting tools to small businesses and DIY buyers.

www.uwelding.com

I had a question about the lotos and emailed them. Within 10 minutes I got a response. I asked a couple more questions and the same thing, within a few minutes I had an answer. So I bought it off ebay and added a 2 year square trade warranty for $40.

Lotos put 2 and 2 together and figured it was me that bought it and emailed and let me know it shipped today and will be here on Wednesday. I was impressed with their customer service, and in the world today that's saying something.

I have some 12" square plates to cut up and my band saw won't take anything that big. I thought about putting the plate on one of my mills and slicing them up with an end mill, or maybe using trying to use a steel cutting blade on my circular saw. In the end after watching videos of plasma cutters I just decided I need one and did click and ship.

My plates won't come in until Saturday but I'll try and find something else to try and cut and post the results here.

 

[Janderso]

Good write up.

I bought a plasma cutter today, but didn't buy the Yes cutter. Got the lotos and I'll tell you why.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255364852474

Plasma Cutter Non-Touch Pilot Arc LTP5000D Dual Voltage 110V/220V Compact Cutter

Shop now for your one stop metal cutting solutions. Lotos Technology offers quality portable plasma cutting tools to small businesses and DIY buyers.

www.uwelding.com

I had a question about the lotos and emailed them. Within 10 minutes I got a response. I asked a couple more questions and the same thing, within a few minutes I had an answer. So I bought it off ebay and added a 2 year square trade warranty for $40.

Lotos put 2 and 2 together and figured it was me that bought it and emailed and let me know it shipped today and will be here on Wednesday. I was impressed with their customer service, and in the world today that's saying something.

I have some 12" square plates to cut up and my band saw won't take anything that big. I thought about putting the plate on one of my mills and slicing them up with an end mill, or maybe using trying to use a steel cutting blade on my circular saw. In the end after watching videos of plasma cutters I just decided I need one and did click and ship.

My plates won't come in until Saturday but I'll try and find something else to try and cut and post the results here.

I hope you have better luck with your Lotus.
Mine ate consumables, didn’t cut very well.
Maybe it was the operator and the air supply had too much water?
I sold it and bought a Hypertherm 45 Pro. The guy I sold it to bought a Hypertherm 45 Pro about six months later.
It’s $1,000 bucks more though.

 

[Eddyde]

Yup, Plasma cutting needs very dry air, I use a refrigerated dryer and have no issues.

 

[keeena]

@MikeInOr - regarding the grounding: one tip I came across recently for welding was to use a bundle of large-gauge stranded copper wire between the ground location and clamp. Supposedly can help give more surface area as well as give the clamp more substance to bite on (if clamping area is on the thinner side).

I used some wraps of solid copper wire around one end to keep the strands from completely unwinding. Grounding directly to the piece is obviously ideal but this might be worth a shot if that's not possible.



[edit] - the clamp that comes with your plasma cutter is likely a bit flimsy and upgrading the wire size and clamp couldn't hurt.

 

[TomWS]

Good write up.

I bought a plasma cutter today, but didn't buy the Yes cutter. Got the lotos and I'll tell you why.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255364852474

Plasma Cutter Non-Touch Pilot Arc LTP5000D Dual Voltage 110V/220V Compact Cutter

Shop now for your one stop metal cutting solutions. Lotos Technology offers quality portable plasma cutting tools to small businesses and DIY buyers.

www.uwelding.com

I've had a Lotos LTP5500D for 2 years and haven't had a bit of trouble with it. When I first got it I ran through consumables pretty quickly but that was due to three reasons:
1. I was a TOTAL newbie and made some stupid mistakes,
2. I was using Lotos and cheap consumables,
3. I fixed my air supply so it was DRY.

I solved #1 by learning a bit.
I solved #2 by finding a good supplier of quality consumables (https://www.georgesplasmacuttershop.com/products if any one is interested).
I solved #3 by adding dryers and filters and replacing my almost 20 year old compressor with a new one.

Do I envy those who have Hypertherms? You betcha!
Will I buy one of those? Nope, what I have works for me.

 

[greenail]

The Yeswelder CUT-65DS came in last Wednesday. I only had a chance to set it up on Friday and make a couple of test cuts. The test cuts went well.

Today I had a chance to spend some time in the shop and work on the mobile base I have been building.
View attachment 395315

I needed some brackets to weld onto the mobile base that I could bolt the casters onto. I bought a 14" piece of 4" x 4" x 1/8" tubing. I cut the tubing in half so I had two 7" pieces of tubing. Then I made the cut above with the plasma cutter cutting the two pieces into 4 pieces but tapered from 3" at one of the cut to 1" at the other end of the cut yielding the 4 brackets that I needed. With the help of a straight edge clamped on to the tubing almost all the cuts went perfect. The second cut I played around with the pressure and current a bit and the arc started going out after about an inch of cut. After a few more minutes messing around I decided to attach the ground clamp to the piece and the rest of that cut and all the other cuts went very nicely.

I did have a bit of slag on the cuts but I am new to this and haven't figured out the current and pressure settings yet. I made a test cut in a 1/2" plate which also went very nicely. All of the cuts that I made today were on 110v with a max of 45amps. The 110v/220v plug adapter they supplied does not fit my 220v shop plugs. I will have to make my own adapter.

As far as negatives:
The manual is for all practical purposes non-existent.
There is a flow gauge that came with the cutter which took me a while to figure out how to use it. At first I thought it was supposed to slip onto the drain port of the supplied filter / water separator. Then I figured out that you put the nozzle of the torch under the flow meter and adjust the pressure until the ball in the meter rises to the indicated marks on the flow meter.
The pressure adjustment and the pressure gauge mount to the back of the unit instead of being integrated into the unit like some of the nicer cutters. The pressure gauge points backwards so you have to turn the unit around or stretch your neck around the back of the unit to read the pressure gauge. I guess if you use the flow meter pressed against the torch nozzle you don't really have to look at the pressure gauge and the pressure regulator can be manipulated easily enough by reaching over the top of the unit.

Summary:
I am VERY happy with this cutter. It isn't a top of the line Hypertherm but it should easily handle anything that I will ever want to do with it including experiment with a DIY CNC plasma cutter some day. I doubt I will ever tax the full 65 amps the unit is capable of but it is nice to know it is there if I need it. That said there is nothing to confirm that it will put out 65 amps but there is no guarantees on the actual output any plasma cutter with the best hope that the big names are more honest than the cheap ones. I do have some gouging tips on order that I look forwards to trying to cut a few welds with. The replacement consumables haven't arrived yet so I can't confirm they will work. I will post when the arrive and I give them a try.

I have no regrets buying this cutter (so far). Everyone needs to make there own choices and I am no plasma cutter expert so I will not go so far as to recommend the cutter BUT I have found nothing that would make me recommend staying away from this cutter.

Cheers!


Edit: The S45 consumables came in today. They work fine. I do not understand the two Amazon reviews that say there are no consumables available for this plasma cutter. Maybe the description did not previously spell out that the torch was a Chinese clone of a S45 Hypertherm torch?

how do you like it 6 months later?

 

[Flynth]

I too have a cheap Chinese plasma cutter (cut45) which uses the same s45 torch. I found that cutting thicker than a quarter inch plate with the metal standoff that friction-fits over the torch is possible only with perfect settings, perfect angle, perfect drag speed and brand new consumables. Soon enough the arc extinguishes repeatedly and one is forced to swap consumables.

BTW, my air is quite dry. We're still having freezing temperatures around here and my compressed air is sent through 20m of sloping copper tube (mounted outside) and two passive water traps.

However, I found "a solution" to this problem. Take the annoying standoff off and just hold the torch in your hand. Position your hands so you can lean on something for precise positioning. Holding the torch closer to the work (2~3mm or 80-120 thou) provides a reliable cut and consumables last for ages(except the plastic cover on the front, it is easy to burn it with back splatter). I replace tips when I can see the hole has visibly grown and electrodes every second tip usually. To put that into perspective. Today I've made about 3 meters of cuts(across 30 cuts) in 10mm plate (0.4in). I started with well used consumables and I could probably make another half a meter of cuts before swapping the nozzle as the hole starts to look egg shaped a bit.

My plasma cutter was one of the best tools I've ever bought. I use it for everything, from 1mm (19 gauge) sheet steel, to 12mm (half inch) plate (that's its max cut capacity). I use it to cut aluminium too. I cut angles, profiles etc. Yes, there is some slag to remove before welding and some grinding, but it is so much faster than a cutoff wheel and you can't bring everything to a stationary saw.