Guru
Joined: 03/06/2019
Location: AustraliaPosts: 1584
| Posted: 03:07am 09 Apr 2020 |
The plasma I have has a built in compressor.
I got it off my father after he gave up on the thing. Wouldn't cut for crap. He sent it back to the local welding place several times and they said there was nothing wrong with it. It wasn't cutting worth a damn that was for sure. I rang the distributor and had a Chat with a Lovely guy who sent me a new nozzle and tip as he said they were critical to the things working properly. Put them in and it's been fine.
Got new consumables from fleabay and they have worked fine as well. I think the welding place where he bought it were just incompetent. Didn't take much to " Fix" it at all. Dad didn't want it back as he had no further need for it and never really used it anyway but I love the thing.
My ailments are fast catching up to me and putting the brakes on things too. Now I have most of the toys I always wanted, I'm lacking the motivation to use them. Just keeping up with the maintence around the place is often more than I can manage.
I like to weld things together. Faster, cheaper, easier and stronger than bolting things up. I have a had few people say to me over time, what if you have to take it apart? I say so what? I'll UNweld it, that's what a plasma cutter is for.
Fortunately haven't had to do that often, but that's how I look at the thing. A welder puts together, a plasma takes apart.
I do like my plasma though. It makes things quicker and easier and quieter ( never thought I'd ever have any concern about that!) than other cutting methods.
The neighbour saw me Cutting something the other week and asked If I could cut him some Sheet metal as it was a bit hard for his tin snips and didn't want to use a Grinder.
Put down a bit of timber as a Guide, ran the cutter along and the job was done quick and clean. Think I made his day. He said he was going to look at one but didn't have frequent need of one. I said I have one right here, I can do whatever you need or you can borrow the thing any time you like!
Friend of Mine has a MIG/ TIG/ Plasma all in one. Chinese thing but works well.
It needs a compressor and the times I borrowed it before I got my own I found running the compressor and The Plasma easily over powered the Circuit in the shed.
Had to get a lead and tap into another circuit for the compressor.
I have had an old car LPG tank for years and for big jobs I run the compressor up and fill the LPG tank as well as the very decent compressor tank for extra reserve.
I'd do that then turn the compressor off and just run the plasma. That was plenty of air for what I needed generally. If not just give the compressor another run while I was sorting out the next lot of stuff to cut.
I see now there are these CNC Tables that a lot of people attach a Plasma to. They cut out brackets and parts like they are nothing. Everything they do has these professional looking rounded and custom designed brackets that look like they were made in a Precision German engineering shop.
While the guys using them make it look easy, I am quite confident the programming would be well beyond my paltry and getting worse mental abilities.
Thought it was amazing when I could cut metal with fire, Now I cut metal with electricity and barely give it a second thought. :0)
If you want to cut serious metal, have a look at a Thermal Lance