Cut 40 first impressions

[rog8811]

I had set a budget of around £250 to get a mig welder, I ended up going second hand @ £75 (This thread http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=16423 )
As I hadn't spent my budget and I have a lot of sheet metal work up and coming, which would be hard work for my nibbler, I decided to have a look on Ebay for a plasma cutter and found the following from ebay seller zen24788.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Plasma-Air-Cu...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item23049077c1

As the seller was local I asked to go and see the cutter in action. Don Vallance, the demo man, showed me the controls and answered all my questions about capacity, air supply etc.
After cutting slots in an old mower seat pan and, under instruction from Don, cut a piece of 50mm x 50mm tube with a 3mm wall, I was ready to buy.

Mike Howard, the head honcho, explained that he gets these direct from the factory with no middle men to push up the prices. He offers a one year guarantee plus he sells all the consumables you will need.

So what did I get?

Pic No 1 shows it just out of the packaging, the only things you would need to supply are a suitable plug (13A in my case) and some PTFE tape for the air connections. The instructions are in the usual Chinglish but I could work out what they were trying to impart.

Pic No 2 shows a slight mod I felt would be wise... the switch lead is a bit short and I could see it getting pulled when using the torch so I tiewrapped a loop near to the plugs to relieve the strain.

Pic No 3 The frame I needed to cut up for material 50 x 50 x 3 sq tube and 10mm flat, having tried out tube cutting on the demo I went for it... not pretty but hey I am new at this!

I have just discovered that the other photo's I want to post are corrupted so I will post here again with the rest of the report later. I will also add other contact details for the seller at that time.

Regards rog8811

 

[lchris21]

Got Zactly the same one but in red .

Got to say for the money its a good buy. Been using mine quite a bit over the last 12 months on various projects and it makes mince meat of old mini panels.

Can get a bit overloaded on long-ish bursts, but cools down quickly ready for the next bit. Mine is maxed out on the dial'ey bit so I don't bother fiddling with it. Struggles from about 6mm onwards, but up to 3mm is toast.

Enjoy

Some of the jobs its done:

 

[the snooper]

that cd will never play you just cant make em like that

 

[rog8811]

Pictures sorted so here we go

Pic No 4 All cut up. It took a while to find the best settings, by the time I was cutting the second tube I had upped the airflow a bit ( shown as pressure @ around 45psi) and upped the output to around 30A, once I had gone all round with the cutter the tube just came off in my hand!

Pic No 5 shows a close up of the cut end, not too bad flash-wise.
I realised that the other cuts would need a bit of help as the material was 10mm thick so I used a cutting wheel on my angle grinder to go around half way through ( 5 minutes and a lot of noise) then finished the cuts with the plasma cutter (1 minute, nice and quiet).

I will not get around to any sheet work until the week end but first impressions of this cutter are that it will do all that I ask of it, all for £199.00.

Only time will tell about reliability, I will keep this thread updated.

If you want to bypass ebay you can contact Mike Howard through his website, you may be able to collect and save the postage.
http://www.thecylinderdoctors.com/

Regards rog8811

*EDIT* Just seen the other posts, good to see yours is ok after a year Ichris

 

[lchris21]

that cd will never play you just cant make em like that

It will, its heavy metal

 

[grandads_shed]

rog8811
what size compresser are u useing with the cut 40?

 

[rog8811]

Hi GS, I connected it to my big old noisy donk, the output of which I don't know, (1/2 horse motor big single cylinder).
The demo was run from a small hobby sized compressor, Don said that the tank, at a guess 25L (about the size of this one http://tiny.cc/comp51 ) , was a little small for the job and he would sometimes need to stop cutting to let it catch up.
He said my twin motor Junair silent, 100l/min, would do the trick as long as the tank is big enough....it isn't at only 10L.

Hope that helps.

Regards rog8811

 

[paul_f]

Does it just plug into a 13A supply?

 

[Justme]

It really needs a 32amp plug as it used 4.8kw which is 20amps ish.

 

[rog8811]

Does it just plug into a 13A supply?

As justme says it should be a 20A connection....But I have wired mine through a standard 13A plug, I ran it at near full power with no problems, it depends on your duty cycle and even then I would bet on the thermal cutout stopping you before the fuse does.

Regards rog8811

 

[FireStorm]

was this from cobhom? as mine come from there and i'm so impressed with it.

I do banger racing and had to cut some welds on a car, out come plamsa cut 3mm sheet easy, we run corner plates, marked them up and cut them with ease. Even cut the cat off using it.

not tried nothing thicker, but will be over next few days... will have to get some pics up of it in action.

 

[rog8811]

was this from cobham

The very same do you plug in with a standard 13A plug?
At the weekend I will be making a gas bottle holder for my mig, I will post the results.

Regards rog8811

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

it's an inverter rather than a transformer so it'll run OK from a 13A plug in a standard mains socket.

I've been using the Berlan equivelent to your cutter (probably very similar inside) for over a year with no problems.

Regards
Peter

 

[FireStorm]

I used a standard 13amp plug, but the new garage when built will be on a 20 amp fuse.

 

[Justme]

Hi,

it's an inverter rather than a transformer so it'll run OK from a 13A plug in a standard mains socket.

I've been using the Berlan equivelent to your cutter (probably very similar inside) for over a year with no problems.

Regards
Peter

It still used 4800watts on full power. How the watts are used does not matter (well not strictly true but close enough for this). 13amps is only 3000 odd watts. Yes it will; "work" but its not right. 13amp fuses have a large overload margin & as cutting tends to be in short bursts the fuse will get time to cool down.

 

[rog8811]

I said earlier....

At the weekend I will be making a gas bottle holder for my mig, I will post the results

I changed my mind
I needed to cut an intricate shape out of 0.5mm aluminium, I have learnt a few lessons which are probably well known to the more experienced users but may help newbies, like myself.

The aluminium will be swaged around a former that is 12mm thick plywood, I had thought that I could use the ply as a template on top of the aluminium.... I discovered that the template does something to the airflow of the gun and disrupts the plasma, causing lots of spluttering and gaps in the cut. Also small radii at the ends of the slots ended up looking messy.

I decided to drill holes in the ali and join them up using some floor laminate as a straight edge.... this works fine other than my stupidity when I cut too far

When My new piece of ali arrives I will know better what to do... I hope.

Regards rog8811

 

[scarecrow]

you would be better off with some sort of running rail for the long cuts

 

[rog8811]

What I am doing at the moment are some floor laminate templates with end stops to prevent me from cutting too far .....again!
I will need to cut some large radii soon so I will be making an adjustable tramel to do that.

Regards rog8811

 

[buggyboyshane]

bought a wee cutter almost identical to this off ebay- jesus the instructions are terrible! lol

some of the quality is a bit dodgy ie the cable ties that hold the torch together, and the switch that looks like they got it from kinder surprise!

mine came today with a blue 16a round plug and no air hose to hook up reg so im stumped till i figure out how to hook it up to my supply and i get some air hose!


anyway couple of questions.....

-there is an earth terminal on the rear of the machine- does it need to be connected to anything?

- the switch on the front of mine says 2.5s and 5s....... whats this for?

- what input air psi do you reccomend?

im almost tempted to buy up a load of consumables knowing that as its a copy will it just drop of the face of the earth some time in the future.

cheers

 

[Justme]

The 2.5s & 5s is air flow after you stop. Its to cool the consumables. I would use 5s as the small amount of air extra should not be an issue & could save on spares.