Economical Plasma Cutter

[ToughOldFord]

Hey all, thought I'd pass on this tip for an economical plasma cutter. No, I have nothing to do with selling these.
Been wanting to get my hands on a plasma cutter for some time, but they are pricey! Even the Harbor Freight units are over $600! Found various Chinese units on Fee-Bay, but was leery, but found several good reviews and demonstrations on Youtube and one guy even did a 1 or 2 year follow up and it was still running strong.

Anyway, the are a lot of various "makes", but you'll see that the models are mostly all Cut40, Cut50, etc. Same units, just different paint jobs as they are sold by different people.

I ended up getting this one for half the Harbor Freight cost:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAL-Electric-Pl ... 19e6283ecb

And I am impressed, it uses no gas, just air from your compressor, and it eats steel. It exceeded my expectations, I'm used to cutting with a torch so that's the speed I'm used to, but this thing fires right off cutting instantly and keeps going.

Like I said, there's a lot of variety of these on ebay, I just picked this one because it's in California so I'd get it quicker and it comes with 40 consumables. There are a few units that are a little cheaper if you hunt around.

Probably a bit light duty for shop use, but it'll be great for home and garage.

Thought I'd pass that along. Been quiet in this garage section lately.

[ToughOldFord]

Here's they guy on Youtube doing his 2 year follow up and it's linked to his original review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BDqS_MOp_w

[Mancar1]

Hey thanks for the post. That is a mach.

[Calfdemon]

Thanks for posting that!! I almost just made an impulse buy, but I am going to hold off and get it later when I have less financial commitments.

[HIO Silver]

I have a Hobart AirForce 250ci plasma cutter...... the compressor is built-in and can cut up to 3/16ths.

PLUS.. it plugs into a 110v receptacle. How cool is that?!

http://www.hobartwelders.com/products/p ... orce250ci/

[ToughOldFord]

That on board air is nice. That's a good unit there. But look at that price, ouch! Even if I had that kind of money I'd never be able to justify spending it on a tool that'll get used a couple of times a year.

You you look around ebay you can find some similar to mine that are 110, some are even dual-voltage., but I specifically wanted 220 for the extra punch. I just added a new service entry to my garage so I could have the proper 220 power to my welders. Originally the garage only was a 20 amp 110 branch off of the house, it took nothing to blow the breaker and I had to do the dryer plug thing out of the house for the welder. Man I'm glad those days are over.