Power Plasma 60 Review

I bought the Power Plasma 60A unit a month ago and after dealing with a SNAFU with UPS losing the first Unit, received the green monster. This is a great unit and a huge upgrade from my old 1 gen 20 amp plasma. Everything was packed well and the only thing not included was the plug for the power cord. A trip to Northern Tool and $20 later and everything was ready to burn.



Here are some pics of me setting up the unit to try it out. Just scraps to get the hang of this new machine and to play with the settings:

First is a piece of clean 3/16 in steel. I fired up the system and left the setting where they were from the factory testing ( 38 amp @ 35 psi ). This is the first unit I have used with the pilot arc and it is nice. Free hand playing with the cut speed. Clean cut with a bit of slag due to user method.


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...0/P1020354.jpg

Next was a crusty piece of 1/4 in steel out of my scrap pile behind the garage. I did not even brush off the rust. I left the settings at 38 amp and 35 psi for this one also since it did such a good job before. I was not disappointed as the torch sliced through the steel like it was not even there.


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...0/P1020356.jpg

Felling pretty ambitious, I pulled out a 1.25 inch thick steel shackle mount I had made but not used. I originally cut these out on a Buddy's industrial CNC plasma table. Talk about an easy way to build parts :grinpimp: . Anyhow, I cranked up the Plasma to 60 amp and the air to 48 psi. Hit the switch and gave it a try. The torch blew through the first 1 inch like it was not there. I tilted the torch a bit to clear the cut and took it slow. My freehand method leaves a bit to be desired but the sever cut was good. This is material that I will not be working with in my garage, I just wanted to try it out and was pleasantly surprised.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...0/P1020357.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...0/P1020358.jpg


Next, I pulled out an old heavy bumper that needed to have the ends cut off of the pipe. It cut the 1/4 in thick pipe like butter. This was a crusty old work truck unit that had been laying behind my garage for a couple of years. No clean up at all, just burned it apart.

Then I pulled out a 14B axle that I was prepping for installation in my jeep and made short work out of trimming off the stock brackets. Nice and clean leaving minimal grinding for final finishing. This was so much easier than my old method of cutting disks in the angle grinder.

I am going to build a mount for this torch to run on my Koike IK600 CNC cutting table that is currently running a torch. It should work great on the 3/8 in plate I run through it currently.


BTW, Alex was great to deal with through the UPS foul up and got me a replacement machine sent out ASAP.

FC,

That's what the units are supposed to do. However, boost your pressure up to 60-65 psi. I think that the manual states something higher. You'll get less striations. Originally, the intention was to have higher PSI to boost the cutting power. But after more thorough testing and development, it turns out that the units are better suited for pressures around 60 psi. Be sure to lower your pressure at the tank to about 80 psi or less before it enters the machine. We have found that overpressurizing the internal lines will eventually lead to some minor leaking. Some people have tried (...coughmecough...) to push the machines to their PSI limits. Although the machine will withstand higher pressures, I like to be safe side of our recommendations.

If you wish to run the CNC and assure no interference with the CNC computer, ground the back of the unit to an outside metal stake driven in the ground to bleed of any EM frequencies that may occur. There is a shiny bolt at the rear of the machine to allow direct connection of a wire. A small gauge wire is enough. Do not ground it to the table or anything else. This is only required if you see any interference or have any related concerns.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown, I could cut better with a torch. You need more air pressure to get a clean cut. My plasma requires 90 psi. Don't angle your torch head so much. That actually makes the metal you are cutting thicker (angled cut versus straight cut). Like anything else, PRACTICE and do what works for you. Good luck. Jim

Don't use 90 psi...Not on our cutters. It isn't needed.

75 PSI max is the highest I have used on the PowerPlasma 70 and that was around 1.25" steel plate. I was playing around and have no real reason to cut that thick or it be a clean cut.

Looks like you had the torch at an angle, left or right of the cut and not enough air pressure. You can see it was a good vertical cut, but the torch looked like it was leaning and low on air pressure. So basically you cut 1.5" with low pressure.

Long as nothing caught on fire, no burns on you, mission on 1.25" was accomplished with a little work...

Can I cut steel using air instead of argon with a Power TIG unit with the appropriate torch? How does the Plasma Cutter differ from the Power TIG unit??

John,

Plasma cutting was invented as an off shoot of trying to create a plasma welding system using a techinque similar to TIG.

But no, its not a good idea to even try. The amperage and voltage issues are make it not possible. The multi-process units we have actually have two separate boards in them to accomplish this. The Plasma has around 200 OCV's. The Tig has around 90. Tig has 200+ amps and the plasma has around 50-100. The circuitry is much different, including the way the pilot arc works.
In short, please don't experiment with this idea.