I just bought one today off the Parker metalworks guy on Ebay. He said he only sells the Riland brand, supposedly they're better quality than the knock offs. He's local in AZ, so I picked it up for $750 with tax. He hooked it up and I cut some 1/4", did it real easy. I did some 3/8" but I'm not that good with it yet so it was a crappy cut, he did a pass much better so I know it'll do it fine. It also has a infitine dial setup which is nice for doing artwork such as writing things in the top layer of metal without piercing it, which I might use. It has the tip cooling feature also, kind of like the Snap-on big one I used to get to use every once in a while. It's really light and will work on 120 or 220 with no wiring changes. He just had a 220 to 110 adapter a couple feet long. Plug the 220 range plug into it and it becomes a standard 120 plug. I have to run a new circuit in the garage for it this week, and then I'm going to play with it. The gun is a little cheesy compared to some of the major players, but is really simple and has abrasion guard on it already. It has at least 15' of torch and ground which is nice. I'll post some pics when I get it up and going.
I am looking at the plasma-tig-arc machine on ebay. I am very interested in it but only if it is a quality unit, don't want to waste my money. post up as soon as you use it and let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Karl.
All I can give you here is first impressions. I have used a plasma probably less than an hour my whole life. I previously bought a Miller Spectrum 120 volt unit with a built in compressor and the thing would barely do sheetmetal. It was put on Ebay real quick at a little $ loss. I also used a 60 amp Snap On huge machine a few times, but that thing was a tank with it's own wheels. I set it up last night in the garage on a HF on sale cart. I wired in a 220 30 amp range outlet into an existing box and added a 6' range whip from Home Depot to the 6' or so you get with the plasma. I used some lugs and mil and electrical taped the hell out of them so now I have about 12' of power cord. I set the supplied regulator/water trap for 70 psi per instructions and flipped the switch on. I had an old rusty piece of 3/16 plate about 8" long. Sliced through that in probably 15-20 seconds real easy. Next up was an old overload leaf spring. You can see in the pic that it was between 3/8 and 1/2" thick, .41 and about 2" wide. Clamped the ground to it and had it in half in probably about 5 seconds. It ate through it no problem. I hit it with a grinder to clean the slag off and you can see the finished product. I hope this thing is as reliable as it is quick and light. Most of the stuff I would do with it is 3/8" or less, and from what I've seen it'll do that with ease. I also dig the reversible tips, 2 uses from the same tip. The only thing I don't particularily like is the cheesy gun trigger that is just ziptied on. A real trigger style gun would be nice, but for the price, I can live with it. Now the pics.
Built in regulator/water trap with drain. Set at 70 psi. Instead of the supplied barb fitting, I just threaded in a male 1/4 quick connect and run my line right to it.
OCM, I saw the combo you wanted there too. I was considering that too, but no one has anything good to say about tiging aluminum DC, and that's all I'd use it for. I have a wire feed for all my steel, and am going to buy a Miller 210 with a spoolgun for the aluminum I need to do. The new ones are nice with dual tanks, C25 and argon and seperate guns with no switchover, just grab whatever gun you want to use. I'll still hang onto my beat to hell 135 (in the pic) for small jobs and portability.
They are doing nicely, thank you.
One thing to keep in mind is that they ignite through contact and not a pilot arc, like some of the more common brands. It means you need clean steel to cut, like when welding. The pilot arc kinds use the pilot arc to burn through rust/paint/template paper, which is convenient, but not a show stopper. Once you have the arc started you can move over to painted/rusted areas, so you only need to clean the area where you want to start.
There is a new model out from the manufacturer (Mitec, China) with pilot arc, but slightly lower cutting power. Look out for if if you think you need pilot arc.
They are doing nicely, thank you.
One thing to keep in mind is that they ignite through contact and not a pilot arc, like some of the more common brands. It means you need clean steel to cut, like when welding. The pilot arc kinds use the pilot arc to burn through rust/paint/template paper, which is convenient, but not a show stopper. Once you have the arc started you can move over to painted/rusted areas, so you only need to clean the area where you want to start.
There is a new model out from the manufacturer (Mitec, China) with pilot arc, but slightly lower cutting power. Look out for if if you think you need pilot arc.
I've got a batch of Mitec 40 amp plasma cutters arriving in late January and a few of my friends will be buying them from me and the remaining will go on eBay. If they provide any feedback about using them, I'll post the info in here.
I'm still like mine. I used it tonight to clean up some 1/4" coil spring retainers and factory D60 brackets off some axles I bought. I burnt up one side of my first tip, flipped it over and now I'm on the second side. I'm liking the cheap, flippable electrodes.
Ditto what Tobbjo said, hit the edge of whatever you're gonna cut with a grinder to get the arc started, they don't always strike on painted/greasy surfaces. Once they do, you're good to go. Kind of like a flux core welder.
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