Looking to buy a plasma cutter. Any advice?

[2Gunz]

Would love to hear some reviews of machines people have or use.

Also anybody know of a good deal on one?


Thanks

[derailed]

You may want to check out this forum. I found it when I was shopping for a welder. Its a wealth of info when it comes to welding and cutting.
http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/index.php

[Chatt69chgr]

I briefly looked at these.  Didn't end up buying one.  Decided I could accomplish my cutting on my car with a pneumatic cutoff wheel.  Good places that sell them are BR Welder, Cyberweld, and Weldersource out of Louisville, KY.  All three on the web.  Miller makes a line of them as does what I think is the original called Spectra Dynamics.  They cost $1000 up.  You can get a pretty good unit for $1500 range.  They are useful for cutting aluminum since a oxy-acteylene rig won't cut non-ferrous metals.  They use compressed air and require a dry air source.  So you will have to have a real good system for getting the water out of the compressed air.  I don't think one of those little cylindrical dryers would be adequate.  Probably would need a nice iron pipe manifold and/or a refrigerated dryer.  Harbor Freight has one of these now.  Don't know if it would be adequate for this application.  Of course, Ingersol Rand has a refrigerated dryer but I bet it's real expensive.
I just bought a welder and found this site while surfing the net.  It has a lot of good info on it and just reading the posts, it seemed like the guys on it were real nice and helpful.  You might check with them.

http://www.shopfloortalk.com/forums/index.php

[68chrgrwife]

Your lucky I'm not your wife....Hubby has been asking for one for years, but I refuse...I think they are useless unless you are doing all the body work on your vehicle yourself and plan on doing a whole fleet of cars not just the one you own now.

[Lurker]

Your lucky I'm not your wife....Hubby has been asking for one for years, but I refuse...I think they are useless unless you are doing all the body work on your vehicle yourself and plan on doing a whole fleet of cars not just the one you own now.

i just bought a plasmatherm 30 amp unit, its 110/220 volt and good for 3/8ths i use it a lot doing bodywork but i do a lot of oilfield fabricating in my shop to, it was spendy and its not very big but i love the dam thing.. lol.  if i was just doing bodywork as a hobby i wouldn't have bought it they are expensive. i use mine almost everyday between work and my charger but find myself using a 1/16 cut off wheel more and more on the car because of the cleaner cut and straighter lines.

the smaller homeshop type ones are fairly new on the market still i think so i wouldn't hope for a deal on one unless your in the market for one that will clean cut half inch plate, i could have bought one 3 times the size of mine for the same price but a huge one wouldn't have been as usefull to me. i have never seen a miller plasma cutter or used one but they make a dam good welder so i would trust them, mine is a plasmatherm not sure if its a common brand but i know 3 or 4 people with them and we have never had trouble with them.

i paid 1100 canadian for my 30 amp and my buddy paid 3500 a year or 2 ago for his 300? amp unit, so with the currency exchange thats about 45 bucks american for both? lol (kidding mine would be 1000 ameribucks roughly)

[is_it_EVER_done?]

For car work I can't see any place that a Plasma would be better than a cut off wheel. I have a friend that has one, but he uses a cut off wheel to clean up the cut!!!  I've asked him why he doesn't just use the wheel instead of the cutter, and he tells me it's easier this way???

I guess I just don't understand.

[68chrgrwife]

I just think boys want bigger toys than they really need...it's like the whole engine thing...Everyone would rather have a hemi than a 316.....except me.  Hubby doesn't do body work and I think that a plasma cutter is useless to him.  He just wants it so he can tell his bauddies he ahs one..I think

[red72chrgr]

Nah guys aren't like that are they? 

[Rolling_Thunder]

i use one at the shop - on rare occasion though...    i mean a cutoff wheel makes nicer cuts...  but for sheer joy in removing pieces of metal - there is none.  I use it alot when cutting out trunk floors - but ultimately I use a cutoff to clean the cuts....    for quick cuts that dont need to be perfect it is a great tool but ultimately not practical in my opinion....      I use it more for shop construction than automotive purposes

[Mike DC]

If you're doing a lot of full-blown fabrication work, then IMHO your frustration starts being worth something at some point.  I find lots of things that save patience/tedious/aggravation effort are usually worth it after doing a couple of cars.  The less of my patience that I spend on the known problems, the more I have left for the unexpected stuff.

And look at the alternative:  Cutoff wheels, die grinders, and air compressor running hours are cheaper than a plasma cutter, but they aren't free either.  I've gone through several die grinders in the last few years just literally wearing them out.  (Chinese sh*t strikes again.)

[John_Kunkel]

I talked myself out of buying one for the reasons mentioned above but, if I was gonna get one, it would be the Hobart Airforce 250; I like the idea of the built-in air compressor.

[Joshua]

Check here.... www.cyberweld.com for good prices....

Thermal Dynamics makes a quality cutter for the home shop Cutmaster 38..... I don't have one....yet

My opinion is if you plan on doing any fab work, like building frames, 4x4/offroad stuff, hotrods, parting cars, etc....a plasma cutter is a worthwhile investment. But just for bodywork, panel replacement, etc.....not needed.