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Carbon arc plasma cutter??

About twenty years ago I had an opportunity to use a "plasma cutter" that consisted of two carbon rods held near each other by a sort of mechanism that was operated by a pair of handles like pliers. Give the handles a squeeze and the rods came together to start an arc. Another motion turned on the air and a stream of air blowing through the arc (200 + amps, IIRC) would cut just about anything you set your mind to, metal or not. Not necessarily cleanly, but for demo work the cutter didn't care what was in front of it. Has anyone ever seen or used this device? Has a modern plasma cutter replaced this widget? If this is still around, then perhaps all one needs is a good power supply to do what a plasma cutter does now.

Reply to
carl mciver
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Yes.

Yes.

The difference is immense. Get some hands-on with a real modern plasma cutter and you'll be convinced. The cut quality is vastly better, and the cut capacity for a given current is also much improved.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

I used to use a single carbon rod with air or an "Air Arc" that would really work well for gouging out welds. My plasma cutter works well for gouging smaller welds but can't hold a candle to the amount of metal it can turn into a molten stream compared to the Air Arc. I really liked the way you could see the crack under the bead. As far as severing a peice of steel the OA torch worked better but for thinner iron not as well as the plasma cutters do now. I have my plasma cutter on a CNC table and very seldom run it by hand. Steve Some of the things I make, posted on eBay

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Reply to
Steve Peterson

Reminds me of this:

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Anyone here ever use these? I used them when I dove from '74 to '80. They are pretty awesome for cutting.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

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