Plasma Cutters, Looking for your opinions..

[number98]

Any Plasma Cutter experts out there? I have been looking to pick one up and figured I would see if anyone had an opinion on a good hobbyist / garage builder model? I would use it for cutting sheet metal (body, floorpans, etc.) and maybe the occasional frame section would be the thickest I would need to attempt.

Thanks for any opinions...

[wellis77]

I haven't used it but Eastwood is having a sale on their cutters / welders right now. I have a longevity unit and am very happy with the performance so far. It cut my junk to pieces in no time.

[trmexrunner]

well i ended up buying one of the new miller 675 xtreme, and love it. its more than what your looking for so the 375 would probably work for you. the great thing is there size and weight there, tiny for a plasma and for a home builder space can be a concern. it also uses all the standard miller tips which are pretty easy to obtain locally.
on the other hand a friend has an everlast all in one tig/ plasma /stick paid about 1400 and its received fairly heavy use building choppers and has had no issues. had i not had a nice tig already i might have gone this route nice compact size for the power of the unit.

[fordsbyjay]

Always always always buy bigger then you need. They do not cut nice and clean when you get close to the max thickness rating. I have a hypertherm 380 and wish I would have bought a bigger one. That being said the Hypertherm are real nice and top of the line. I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for so I so I don't buy Harbor Freight type tools unless they are straight dumb iron.

[CFster]

Another vote for Hypotherm. Have a Powermax 45 and love it.

[wiedemab]

I have a Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 38 that I bought used. It has been a good machine. I would agree with the comments above - when you get close to it's thickness limits it cuts very slow and not all that smoothly. It works good for 80-90% of what we do though.

If you can afford to, I'd go bigger than you think you need.

[mikey]

^ X2 awesome machine not to bad to tote around as needed either

[Evldoer]

Another vote for Hypertherm. One thing you want to keep in mind when buying any welder or plasma cutter is the availability and cost of the consumables. Some of the off-brand stuff might work fine, but what do you do when you run out of tips for your plasma cutter, and the local weld supply store has never heard of Brand X that you have? Then you end up buying on line, and you have to wait for parts to show up, and they usually cost alot more then the popular brand consumables.
Just something to think about.

[RS_Customs]

I have a Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 38 that I bought used. It has been a good machine. I would agree with the comments above - when you get close to it's thickness limits it cuts very slow and not all that smoothly. It works good for 80-90% of what we do though.

If you can afford to, I'd go bigger than you think you need.

I have the Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 51, awesome machine! Will fly through some frame sections and sheet metal.

Robert

[Kamikaze Sy]

I have the Hyperthem 30 and love it! Even though I own mostly Miller equipment, this is a great compliment to my 211 Miller Matic MIG and Diversion 180.

I bought the unit with the intention that it had to be portable so being able to run 110 and 230 on the same unit made sense. When I'm out in the field, I have a bottle of Nitrogen and it is cleaner than compresser air.

As others stated, the availability of consumables is a major factor to consider. So buy a name brand unit form a manufacturer that builds welding / cutting equipment.

The only thing I regret is that I cannot retrofit this to work with a CNC Cutting table like the 45 can...

[vintageracer]

I have an ESAB Plasma Cutter that I have used for 13 years. Bought it as a demo from the rep way back when. Still works fantastic. It is a rather powerful unit that will cut 5/8 inch + metal.

My suggestion as with any piece of shop equipment is this:

If you cannot afford a good top of the line piece of equipment NEW then buy a good top of the line piece of equipment USED. You will not save any money over purchasing a cheap offshore unit or off-brand unit however as a good used top of line piece of equipment will still cost more than the cheap crap however you will still have a great piece of equipment that will provide many years of service to you as a hobbyist. Good top of the line equipment from the major manufacturers will also have good and LONG TERM parts support if you ever do need repairs and consumables are easily available. That NEVER happens with cheap off-brand or off-shore equipment. Buying a any CHEAP off-brand or off-shore plasma cutter is a waste of money.

Something to think about!