Plasma Cutter - Miller, Lincoln, ESAB, or TD?
Marty Wayne
2050 for occasional use <= 3/4". Target is best performance & highest
reliability
for $2,000 - $2,500. Power is 240 single phase. Does anyone have any
experience of Miller vs Lincoln
vs ESAB vs TD? Miller & Lincoln are big with dealers here; TD and ESAB
are treated like step children. I've had good experience with my Miller
Econotig but I'm put off by the 30% duty factor on single phase power with
the Spectrum. Lincoln claims 50% DF and weighs 15 lb less - magic? Comments
are welcome.
Marty Wayne
mwa...@gnv.fdt.net
Ernie Leimkuhler
<mwa...@gnv.fdt.net> wrote:
The 2 best names in the Plasma cutter field are Hypertherm and Thermal Dynamics.
Miller's are clunky at best.
Lincolns are OK, but if you want a great machine either buy a Hypertherm
or Thermal Dynamics.
Hypertherm is the actual inventor of modern plasma cutters and has an edge
over Thermal in power output, but the Thermal machines have the nicest cut
in the business.
I just bought a Thermal Machine (Pak 38XL) and it has been great.
I have had the chance to use everybody elses over the last 5 years of
renting them.
Miller committed a serious crime against the welding community last fall,
when they bought Smith and killed their plasma cutter line.
Smith's plasmas have yet to be beat for their power to weight ratio.
A Smith plasma rated at 1/2" was able to cut 7/8" in my test, while a
Hypertherm 1/2" machine will cut 5/8", and a Thermal Machine rated at
1/2" will cut 1/2".
Avoid ESAB like the plague.
This is one instance where you should not buy blue.
--
STAGESMITH PRODUCTIONS
Custom Metal Fabrication
ABANA AWS IATSE Local 15/488
Renton, Washington, US
erpblp
I have to agree with most of what Ernie Leimkuhler say regarding
Plasma. The ESAB unit can be best described as "JUNK". I sold a few of them
at a distributor that I formerly worked for and the damn things came back to
haunt me every time. As far as Lincoln and Miller are concerned, these guys
are welding experts not plasma cutting experts. The Miller units, with the
exception of the Spectrum 300 Cutmate (Actually mfg. by Hypertherm. ) aren't
bad but they just don't compare to the Hypertherm or the Thermal Dynamics
units. As far as Lincoln goes, they are just too big and bulky and the cut
doesn't compare to the others.
My personal favorites in the 3/8 to 1" range are the Hypertherm Powermax
line. The Powermax 350's, 900's and 1100's can't be beat for cut quality
and parts life. These units seem to give you more bang for your buck than
the others. Hypertherm uses "Shielded Parts Technology " on their torches.
What this means is that they protect the tip with a copper shield mounted in
front of the tip. This allows you to drag the torch right on the surface of
what you are cutting without the danger of double arcing. This is always my
choice in shops where there are a lot of operators, or where the operators
have no experience with plasma cutting. These units also do an excelent job
at Plasma Arc Gouging with th change of a few parts in the torch.
The Thermal Dynamics Pakmaster units are also very good units but they
have a tip saver feedback circuit that folds the output back to 35 amps if
you happen to touch the tip to the work piece. This is designed to prevent
you from double arcing the tip, and ruining it. It does what it is supposed
to do , but it also stops the cut on heavier materials if you happen to drag
the tip. The Thermal units also gouge very well.
If you are in the 1 1/2" Range then the winner is the new Thermal
Dynamics Pakmaster 150XL. This unit has a liquid-cooled torch, and this baby
cuts like nothing else in its range.
Unfortunatly for Hypertherm, they have nothing that even compares to
this unit.
For a little history, Hypertherm was the leader in modern Air-Plasma
machines, but the actual process was developed at Dartmouth College by a
group of engineers that eventually first developed Linde Plasma, and then
Thermal Dynamics. Hypertherms claim to fame was when Dick Couch,(Also a
Dartmouth graduate and Hypertherms founder and CEO) invented a better torch
in a two car garage in New Hampshire. This was the birth of Hypertherm, who
is now the industry leader in plasma technology.
I hope that this makes your decision a little easier.
Good Luck,
Earl Pearson,
West Penn Laco, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA.
Marty Wayne wrote in message <1Sz_2.9201$gy1.2...@news3.mia>...
Mr. Special
counter help shows a little interest.
Marty Wayne <mwa...@gnv.fdt.net> wrote in message
news:1Sz_2.9201$gy1.2...@news3.mia...
Kenneth Ferro, S.O.C.
I agree with the majority, I hve a hypertherm that I beat the hell out of.
Works great after 9 years. A note make sure you havea nice dry supply of air
when you get your machine the moisture will use you consumables quicker than
anything.
Mike Graham
That's an interesting point... it's just the consumables that suffer from
moist air, right? The machine itself doesn't much care? I don't mind
replacing a $20 part because I had to use ugly air at a weak moment, but if
it causes internal nastiness, then I have more thinking to do.
--
Mike Graham, mi...@headwaters.com
Caledon, Ontario, Canada (just NW of Toronto).
Raiser of animals. Weldor of metals. Driver of off-road vehicles.
Writer of FAQs. Keeper of the faith, and all around okay guy.
j.gettemy
the head to short out. That would run about $400 to $500 for the part. If
you tried to continue with the shorted torch, the machine would definitely
not like you and might even throw fire at you. Our chains are forged by
what we say and do. Thanks, Jim Gettemy
Ted Edwards
> That's an interesting point... it's just the consumables that suffer from
> moist air, right? The machine itself doesn't much care? I don't mind
> replacing a $20 part because I had to use ugly air at a weak moment, but if
I have a moisture trap/filter right on my plasma cutter for just such
moments. That's enough to limit damage to consumables unless you hook
it up to water instead of air. ;-) In the shop, this doesn't do much
'cause the air line to the plasma cutter comes of a filter/trap followed
by a coelescing filter.
Ted
Gwyn Phillips
<Te...@bc.sympatico.ca> writes
>In the shop, this doesn't do much
>'cause the air line to the plasma cutter comes of a filter/trap followed
>by a coelescing filter.
regularly.I know instances where i have blamed air quality for poor
plasma performance to be told they have a number of filters.When i check
them they are full of water.Also to make sure the coalescing filters are
at least 15 feet from the compressor,compressed air gets hot and needs
to cool for the moisture to precipitate out.
--
Gwyn Phillips
Mike Graham
Okay, so *how* dry does the air have to be? Painting dry, or just
add-a-$30-water-seperator dry?
RDuncan
coalescing filter to protect it from clogging. This could be
your common moisture filter.
A normal filter might filter to 5 microns or so. A
coalescing filter functions differently from standard
particulate filters. Air flows from inside to outside
through a coalescing media. small aerosols come in contact
with the fibers in the media uniting with other aerosols
caught in the fibers. This continues until it emerges as a
drop on the outside of media which gravity drains away. They
can filter all oil and water mist down to .01 microns even
though the smallest hole might be 1 micron. They don't work
on water as a gas so the air must reduced to working
pressure and close to the end use to work best.
To get drier air use desiccants which can lower humidity to
-3 degrees F. This gets the water that could condense
between the filter and the plasma cutter.
Somebody at rec.photo.darkroom talked about making one using
glass fibers which has an affinity for water.
A good air system for painting would use a coalescing filter
but most don't.
j.gettemy
your plasma is not cutting like it used to, and you are going through more
parts than normal, water could be present in your air. The filter that I
have seen on alot of plasmas is a black canister type with what looks like
toilet paper as the actual filter inside. The manufacturer of the filter
recommends that the paper element be changed once a week. Of course, water
trap filters are always used on the compressor end and some compressors have
an automatic drain. Usually the water trap and "toilet paper" filter have
been enough, but then again, I've seen some shops forget that they installed
an automatic oiler on their compressor for the airtools. The air needs to
be as clean and as dry as economical as possible. The manufacturers are
real good to work with and are usually open-minded about most situations
concerning warranty and most repair shops work well with the manufacturers.
There are some shops that hate to do warranty work and would rather line
their own pockets. Watch their face when you mention warranty. Thanks, Jim
Gettemy
RDuncan
filter for all of their diving systems to prevent oil
induced pneumonia. We changed elements every 6 months but a
differential pressure gage can indicate filter condition. We
ran massive amounts of air through these things supporting 2
divers in humid tropical conditions and only drained them
about once an hour. All they really amount to is a depth
filter element with reverse flow which involves putting the
metal reinforcing on the outside of the element. I would
guess that even your TP filter could work as a coalescing
filter if designed and hooked up right. The Paul filter
element we were using cost less than $10.00 and was about
the size of a common omni water filter.
HTP catalog (1-800 usa weld) has a 3 element filter system
that includes a rechargable desicant final filter for
$250.00. I would talk to an air filter dealer in any large
city to buy a filter and housing.