Plasma Cutter?

[rcampbell]

Hi all, recently been thinking of getting a plasma cutter. It didn't take too many days of going home after building my utility trailer with a nose full of grinder wheel dust to want something better. Anyway, I was looking at Hypertherm plasma cutters recently, anyone have any experience with those? Would you recommend any other brands?

[BobbyB]

Hypertherm plasma cutters

I think Chief, has one of those... Yea if, I'm remembering correctly he does, cause he burned his thumb with it, trying to scare his cat...

[rcampbell]

That's weird, they don't mention that feature on the website, just says they will cut metal... :)

[KensAuto]

I have the small hypertherm 30 and it's great for "household" use, up to 3/16"....1/8" easily, super lightweight, 220 or 110v.

[rcampbell]

That's good to know. That's pretty much as big as I go most of the times with steel anyway. 3/16" square tube is the thickest I've welded with my mig welder (lincoln 175). Although I'm thinking of stepping the welder up to something like a miller 212, so as long as my plasma cutter could cut as thick as I could reasonably weld, I think I'd be ok.

[Flyin6]

That's weird, they don't mention that feature on the website, just says they will cut metal... :)

Yea, I have a Hypertherm 45
And yes it is a light saber when used on one's body
The starting arc is like 6 zillion volts...like lightening. When it touches flesh, the flesh goes away
But curring steel or aluminum, it's a monster. Perfect tight lines
In the Square D build thread you can see dozens of examples of that thing slicin' and dicin' non jap steel into perfect pieces
Hypertherm or go home!

[JOKER]

If you only want to buy a plasma cutter once, buy a Hypertherm.

[Flyin6]

Amen to that!

First I purchased some French piece of junk. I used it to link up the Tundra, then it became useless
It's curs were all crooked and inconsistent, and the head unit fell apart on a regular basis.

Nest up was Mr. Chinaman Cut 50D. It will cut but the tip is all ganked up and it's like laying a brick wall with tweezers. Just all wrong...

Then I got tired of wasting money. I opted for the Hypertherm 45 which can sever great Redwood trees and human fingers easily. It doubles as a weapon if we are ever invaded by the Martians and for cutting steel it's pretty keen.

Ah I found another use for it: Spider vaporizer. Using that pre ignition arc of it, just maneuver it close to the spider, then pull the trigger...Poof, the spider disappears. The compact ones completely disappear, whereas the longer legged models leave 8 appendages lying about!

Bets insect destroyer I know! Right up there with spraying spray glue into the path of a wasp...Boom, like a surface to air missile!

[rcampbell]

Do you guys have the circle jig for your hypertherms? I thought those could come in pretty handy.

[Flyin6]

No I don't

I use a steel straight edge and cut out wooden gigs for complex shapes

Sure it gets burned up, but not before producing a decent cut!

[KensAuto]

Do you guys have the circle jig for your hypertherms? I thought those could come in pretty handy.

Have you not seen Big D's cuts? His reply ^^^ says it all. hhahahahahah