Collecting my latest ebay purchase in half hour....!

[BassAddict]

A nice new tool for the garage - Cebora Plasma Cutter !!!
Wohoo ! Now I can cut things up niiiiice and quickly !!! :D
Just thought I'd share that since I'm looking forward to it ! Then again, sure everyone on here gets excited when buying new tools ! Oo er !
Rich

[ChadH]

NICE

Only drawback if I got one of those, is I would cut up anything metal I could find! When I got my MIG welder, I welded the crappy mini car radio to the wing because I'd run out of door hinges to practice on. :D

[BassAddict]

Yeah, being as mature as I am I'll probably end up with a garage wall covered in steel smiley faces and steel human anatomy !!!!

[ChadH]

:lol:
So is your garage still in one piece then?

[BassAddict]

Still in one piece - think the microswitch on the torch is a bit iffy but I didn't have time to look properly as I had an "urgent" appointment at the pub ! Will have a proper play tomorrow - could also be that it will only work when the air compressor is attached and upto pressure .... :? !
Rich

:oops: how do they actually work?????????????? :?:

[BassAddict]

At the moment it doesn't !! Basically use lots of electricity to melt metal, and lots of compressed air to blow the molten stuff out the way !
Think there's an article on howstuffworks.com that explains it all properly for a much better explanation !! :)
Rich

[ChadH]

From what I remember, a plasma cutter gets the metal so hot that it become gaseous (metal gas still conducts electricity), so you can actually cut it without having to touch it with the torch as the high voltage will conduct through the gas.

[BassAddict]

Dont suppose anyone knows how to service one ??? I put all the new nozzles etc on it that I'd bought last night and it still does nothing but pulse once a second or so and never start a proper arc - it must be drawing enough power as the garage lights dim slightly each tmie it pulses ! Even the Mig welder doesn't do that (unless on its very highest - then it just trips the 32amp breaker :) !
Air compressor is hooked up and set to the recommended 4bar, earth clamp seems ok, anything else to check ?
Ta,
Rich

[nominous]

It could be that it doesnt have enough power yet :lol:

"What the hell's a jiggawatt?"

[BassAddict]

Yes, its about 9months since I bought it, but I finally got around to arranging a service after many failed attempts to get it working - could only ever get a pilot arc and no cutting arc, and even that was only occassionally - had already replaced a few bits myself. Dropped it off on Tuesday at Basic Welding supplies in Newton Heath (just incase anyone in the Mcr area ever needs any welding / cutting kit repairing), got a call this afternoon to find its got a nakered head on the torch (£70 for a new one), and couple of burnt out resistors, and a fan thats not working properly - total £100 +vat and labour (they reckon about an hours work to fix it all).
Hopefully they should have the parts this week and next week I'll be able to give it a go :) !!! If I get it working and anyone's interested I'll try and take a video clip :lol: !!!!
Rich

[BassAddict]

Collecting it again in half an hour - all fixed and ready to go hopefully - just hope the garage electrics can cope with the and the compressor going !!!!!!
Its had to have a new torch head, new rectifier, new fan and a couple of new resistors - total bill £120. In total its cost me about £340, but its still cheaper than the £750 they were new !!!!
Just a shame I probably wont get time to have a "play" later :cry:
Rich

[MattG]

cool one rich , off to collect a compressor tonight ... lets see what mess i can get into with that !

Matt

[Geehawk]

lets see what mess i can get into with that !

Matt

A PINK ONE!!!! :P

[MattG]

got to practice on somthing :lol:

[BassAddict]

Wohooooo !!! It works !!! Quick demo vid (its about 1.3MB .wmv format) on a bit of 2mm stainless steel - even the grinder struggled with this stuff (much more than it does with mild steel for some reason) !!
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/richardking/video/plasma-cutter.wmv

[Geehawk]

Damn! :shock: :shock: :shock:

I want one :twisted:

[MiniMike]

That is great, hope that wasn't your workbench you were cutting up! That would be great for my next project, cutting the front end of a crashed Mini and turning the back into a trailer...but it looks like I'll be using a cutoff wheel and saw!

[BassAddict]

It was some semi scrap metal - the mrs works in a chemicals lab and got me about 40 stianless steel shelves - all 2mm thick , decent grade (not in the slightest bit magnetic :) )stainless steel, and all free !!