plasma cutter with internal air compressor

[Lee Clark]

Hi,
Which plasma cutter with an internal air compressor would you recommend for hobby, yard art? I won't be cutting 1/4 inch steel. It looks like the Hobard 250CI has problems. Any better options out there, that are not chinese imports?

Thanks
Lee

[vwguy3]

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/plasma/spectrum_125c/
Howabout this?;)

[Wyoming]

I'd advise against a self-contained air compressor in a plasma cutter because of moisture issues and severely downgraded consumable life, as well as adding one more thing that can go wrong in the machine causing it to go bye-bye. I won't take you long with the price of consumables to pay down the price of a separate compressor and you'll be able to have it for other uses.

[Hotfoot]

Wyoming speaks with great wisdom.:)

[Sberry]

A 120V circuit is poor for cutting or welding to start with, then consume a good portion of it to make air and you severely limit the available power for the plasma. They are really for specialists in my opin, hvac guys. Even yard art I would want more poop than one has. They do work though, they are not bad machines, just extremly small.

[ZINOM]

I have a Hypertherm c190...it's got the self contained compressor and I'd wondered is there was a way to improve the air supply (filter, different/additional air supply, etc).

Wyoming mentioned consumable life being less...is that because of moisture/air quality, or something else not mentioned?

I like the unit (I got it for a trade on C'list) but it would be cool if I could improve it's abilities....maybe by using outside air or some other means as I probably won't be upgrading any time soon.

John

[Wyoming]

The consumable life for a self-contained unit is considerably shorter due to the fact that the air tank, if there is one, is so small. The compression cycle causes the compressed air to heat up and retain moisture which follows down the line to the plasma cutter. As mentioned previously, they probably work well enough for hvac work, but for any other purpose...and this is a personal opinion only...they would be the last choice in a shop.

You could probably work-around a solution to use a self-contained unit with shop air. Plumbing the air into the line just prior to the solenoid should work. You may have to use an additional regulator if the self-contained unit either doesn't have one or it's too difficult to plumb into and by-pass the on-board compressor.

[Sberry]

I think that it is a minor issue, changing the air supply isn't going to inherently improve the machine, it just wont ever make more power than it can.

[Wyoming]

I think that it is a minor issue, changing the air supply isn't going to inherently improve the machine, it just wont ever make more power than it can.

Cary, I'm not so sure he was looking for an increase in power as much as he was probably hoping for extended service life from the consumables. An outside source of clean, dry air should provide a much better service life for them.