Looking to buy a "budget" plasma cutter--

[richl]

I was watching a video on utube a couple weeks back, the guy doing the video had Lincolns very affordable unit. Either that guy was clueless on how to use it, or Lincolns very affordable unit was not very good.

Read the reviews on whatever you decide, red and blue are not always the best choice. +1 on hypertherm or hobart

 

[xalky]

The chinese plasma cutters are fine if you just want to hack stuff up into smaller pieces like you would do with an oxy acetylene cutting rig. Don't even think about a cheap plasma cutter for cnc. If you're gonna do cnc plasma, Hypertherm is the only way to go in my opinion. They're designed with cnc in mind and even interface with the cnc controller.

 

[oregondave]

I own a $230 Chinese CUT-50

here is one like the one I bought
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Deal-C...&qid=1513722177&sr=1-5&keywords=Plasma+cutter

I got it because amazon sold me a warranty (sucks for them? I haven't had any problems yet)

I pickup steel on the side of the road all the time and cut it into what I need for things such as tractor 3 point stabilizer bars, etc. I cut 1" holes and build makeshift one off C and I Beams for things I need. I can cut, tack weld, then stick weld any part I need in half an hour. Before I was buying one off parts (like a draw bar, etc) that I can now make and modify in minutes.

Its wonderful and it does cut deep. I never use my angle grinder for large cuts and I don't own a torch for cutting yet. I would use this plasma cutter for everything first. For example, I needed some sheet metal and so I picked up a washer on the side of the road. Cut it up in about 5 minutes and had plenty of stock sheet metal for a project.

 

[Ray C]

Whatever plasma cutter you settle on, an air dryer is an absolute must. It makes an absolute day/night difference in usability of the plasma cutter. Here's a home-made one with construction costs of about $5 excluding the reusable silica desiccant. The desiccant was purchased on Amazon at a cost of about $20 which is enough to make 4 of these things.

LOL: Warning, don't try to board a plane with one of these in your luggage...

Construction details are well visible in the photos but feel free to ask specifics. Yes, those are foam earplugs stuffed in the connectors to prevent room humidity from saturating the silica when it's not in use.

Regards

Ray C.

 

[Bob V]

Thanks for all the help!
Much appreciated.
Merry Christmas,
Bob

 

[CluelessNewB]

Ray, Is that just perforated metal as a filter in the homemade dryer?

BTW I love the photo bomb!

 

[Ray C]

Ray, Is that just perforated metal as a filter in the homemade dryer?

BTW I love the photo bomb!

View attachment 250578

LOL: I didn't notice little Leila in the picture until you pointed it out.

Yes, that's a perforated piece of stainless steel foil (used for heat treat wrapping) to keep any large pieces of silica out of the line. There is also a downstream air filter built-into the regulator on the back of the plasma cutter.

Also note, I keep the direction of flow marked because the inlet end turns pink-colored as it gets damp. The caps are removable and when the outlet end start turning pink, it's time to bake the silica and re-dry it. It takes about 5-6 hours of actual trigger time to soak all the silica.


BTW: Harbor Freight sells a little tiny unit that has about 2 teaspoons of silica. Don't waste your money. It cost 7 bucks and lasts for about 15 minutes of trigger time before the indicator gel turns pink. Also, the HF unit does not really have enough volumetric capacity to handle 40psi and actually dry-out the air. The unit shown is a 1.5" diameter pipe, with about 6-7 inches of actual silica. The air comes out very dry.

Regards

Ray C.