I've always wanted a plasma cutter but they're sooooo expensive. About $5000- CDN for 100A unit. OUCH!

Point is, several years ago I have a brief conversation with a guy at an auto swap meet about plasma cutters and he claimed they were simple enough to build yourself. He said he was looking into building and selling them himself at much cheaper prices than was usual. Of course I've never seen him again.

Does anyone have any thoughts or info on this? Plans even?

Cheers

 

$5000 is pretty steep and unusual sounding for a 110A. The going rate here in Texas is about $2200 for a 110A.

 

What do you need a 100A plasma cutter for?

A 25A plasma cutter will handle 1/4" steel quite nicely.

How much inch plus thick steel are you going to cut to justify a 100A plasma cutter?

Cheers,
Eric

 

I do have a plasma cutter, but before I got it I did fine with the gas torch. The only real drawback to that is that you can't just set it down for a moment or point it in any old direction while you're doing something else. The gas torch is still what I use for chopping up plows, heavy pipes, car frames etc but the plasma cutter is quite a bit safer and especially good for in the garage use. I'm still surprised how much nice ones cost though.

 

The main reasons I want a plasma cutter is:

One- Speed

Two- to minimise clean up and therefor ease of fitting.

Three- to be able to cut non-ferous metals easily.

Four- to eliminate warpage for cutting into body work.
Hell, you can sign your name in 14/16 ga. steel without warping it.

I was looking at some Powermax equipment today and there are a couple of units I kinda like.

The Powermax 380 ($1.395-) 27 amps 115/230v 1/4" capacity. Only thing is that it only comes in a manual configuration, meaning that you can't hook it up to a CNC unit.

The next model is a PowerMax 600 40 amps 230v with 3/8 capacity and a choice between manual $1,995- and machine $2,195- units. The difference being that the manual unit has a 70 deg. bend in the stinger head for ease of operation and the machine unit has a straight stinger.

I wanted about 1/2" capacity but their next unit model the 1000, goes to 3/4" and $2,645- for manual and $3,185- for machine.

I quoted $5,000-CDN before because I just missed a used 100 amp Century unit some years ago for $800-, When I checked out a new unit it was for $5,000-.

A friend of mine has a 15 amp Miller and he's not really satified with it since he can't cut better that 1/8 material with it.

The Powermax 600 manual semms to be the best buy here so far.

Cheers

 

If you have not yet, take a look at the HyperTherm models.
I have the Baby one, and it handles anything shy of a leaf spring using a 110V circuit.

I've actually been to their manufacturing facility (100% USA). and they are top Notch.

~Paris