Looking to buy a plasma cutter: Advice?

[festyxfi]

Oh wise group,

I think it's time to add a plasma cutter to my arsenal of destruction. Who has one, and what brand(s) are quality?

Does Lincoln build one? (I'm happy with my welder). I'm willing to spend more for something that will last.

Thanks,
Brenton (FX)

[festivabeater]

lincoln does make a good one, if you've never used one before i sugguest you find someone who has.. lest you burn through tips like water, and be willing to spend some money.. they arent cheep, and neither are the tips and you'll go through them at a fairly good rate if you use it regularly

[hawkdoc60]

I used a Lincoln myself. I am trying to find an affordable one myself. No matter what, I believe they will cost >$300 for one that will actually last for any decent length of time.

[stefan]

Hypertherm makes the best plasma cutters, but you gotta have money to burn.

[lessersivad]

I have a Miller spectrum 375. Used one at a former job and finally bought one. Has done everything I've worked on so far. If you drag cut you'll go thru consumables faster then keeping the tip away from the material.

[festyxfi]

Lesser, can you explain "drag cut" and "consumpables? please?

[lessersivad]

Drag cut is when you are actually dragging the tip of the gun across the material being cut vs. leaving a small space like 1/8" or so between the tip and the material. The comsumables are the tips and electrodes that the "plasma" goes thru. There's a couple of short demo vids on this link;

http://millerwelds.com/products/plasma/spectrum_375/

Most generally I drag cut but then again I'm not using mine everyday for production runs either. When I was using the same model at my former job there would be times I was using it every day and the consumables last for quite awhile. It wasn't like I was changing them every day or for that matter every week. Most of the material was new metal but there were times where pieces of older metal were used and if it wasn't cleaned good you would go thru tips faster.

[festivaWES]

We have one at the salvage yard..its a very nice ESAB, nut they fail to maintain anything...therefore it a pile of junk. I think it is the same reason we have all wooden broom and is half broken and doesn't sweep worth a damn.

[festyxfi]

I briefly checked this one out at Northern Tool today:

http://store.cyberweld.com/hoplcuai25.html

I know so little about them, it's hard to tell whether it's a good one or a joke. 90% of what I cut will be body panels, sheet metal types stuff, what I would call light weight.

FX

[hawkdoc60]

Hobart is a really good brand as well.

[renny10n]

I recently bought a Hypertherm powermax 30, dual 120V/220v auto sensor, 15-30amp. I think I paid $900.-1000.(ebay) and I really happy with it. I currently use a 120v/ 20amp outlet and pretty much has fawlessly taken care of all my needs around the garage. Got my practice on and used it to cut up the donor Aspire body after swapping out the brakes,etc.

Consumables are reasonably cheap for the powermax 30 and would advise having extra on hand cause you will burn thru them depending on how much use. Though, my personal experience the consumables lasted me reasonably long.(changed twiced to cut total car up into approx. 12" +/- squares.

My gas/air supply comes from one of those standup roll around compressors @ 80psi. To insure of clean/ dry air, I added an additional filtration unit. Was also going to add a dessicant filter, but so far what I have seems to be more than enough.

Anyways, thought to share!