Plasma cutting

JTknives said:
NO

I spent $1400 on my hand plasma cutter and I have never regretted it. You get what you pay for. It is difficult to get a good clean slag free cut with a good plasma cutter and even harder with a cheep cutter. But I would look into what it would cost to have someone like my self cut tour blanks compared to the number of blanks you process in a year. a plasma has other expenses that add up as well. Need a decent air compressor and some way to dry the air. This is not one of those little dryers that look like a filter. A refrigerated dryer or a regenerating desiccant air dryer. Wet air in any amount will quickly burn up consumables which are pricy.

it is probably the cheapest way to cut steel in the long run but if you making 10-20 knives a year it’s not worth it really.
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JT i shot you an email, please let me know what's the best way to get ahold of you!
 
Lots of import companies now making decent lower cost plasma cutters. I’ve used miller, hypotherm and and other higher end cutters at work for years. I think we paid $3K for our last one but it’s a big unit. HTP and longevity makes a good one too. The smaller units that will easily handle blade material thicknesses are much cheaper..
I’ve seen some $600 units that cut surprisingly good..
Tech has come leaps and bounds since i started welding nearly 30 years ago..
You can buy inverters now that supply 200 amps for $350 and weigh as much as my dinner bucket.
My first welder that I passed my structural test on was as big as a Volkswagen Beetle and only supplied 300 amps, lmao
 
Kentucky said:
Lots of import companies now making decent lower cost plasma cutters. I’ve used miller, hypotherm and and other higher end cutters at work for years. I think we paid $3K for our last one but it’s a big unit. HTP and longevity makes a good one too. The smaller units that will easily handle blade material thicknesses are much cheaper..
I’ve seen some $600 units that cut surprisingly good..
Tech has come leaps and bounds since i started welding nearly 30 years ago..
You can buy inverters now that supply 200 amps for $350 and weigh as much as my dinner bucket.
My first welder that I passed my structural test on was as big as a Volkswagen Beetle and only supplied 300 amps, lmao
Click to expand...

That’s good to know! I keep seeing a lower cost one that gets good reviews but the cost of consumables has me nervous.
Bandsaw has gotten much faster now that I push with the force I feel is equivalent to the weight of the saw.
 
My last set of consumable in my hypertherm cut just under 3500” of material. Yeah it’s a $20 or so set of consumables but it’s cheep in the long run. But I am on board if your lacking other shop tools then a plasma is the last thing you need. The way I built my shop was make a list of what took the most time to the least about it time. And work on solving the big time hogs first. Sure cutting blades takes time but in the big picture how’s it fall into your monthly time allotment. If your cutting 20-100 blades a month then I can see it being a big issue. But if your doing a handful or less then your money is better spent on speeding up the other processes. Even heat treating is one of those things that has to be looked at honestly. Compare volume of blades made and cost to get set up. How long will it take you to pay off and make it worth having everything to do it?
 
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