Pocket 25 Plasma Cutter

In Febuary, a guy gave me a Daytona Mig Pocket 25 plasma cutter (rebadged Cebora 920)

No one knew if it worked, and the defuser, nozzle and electrode had been badly fried. I suspect because they attempted to fire it up without air.

This unit is a "pilot arc" machine, no High Frequency start.

The consumables were a bit pricy, so I stuck it up on the shelf until another day.

2 weeks ago, I contacted Daytona Mig (unfortunately it appears to be the only source for consumables, and not knowing if this even worked..I ordered one of each consumable, electrode, nozzle and defuser.

It they showed up during the week while I was on the road...so today, I dusted it off, ran an air hose and plugged it in.

This torch requires you to press the tip against the work, then press down lightly while springloaded switch kicks in something and the plasma starts. Which it didnt do until I replaced the shitty OEM ground clamp and hit the contact area with a wire wheel.

It works~!!!

The downloaded manual makes no reference to maximum thickness of work. It cuts 1/8" fine, severs 3/16 if its nice and clean, and simply cuts a groove in 1/4" material.

Not as powerful as Id hoped for...sigh...being able to cut 3/8ths would have been the t*ts, or even 1/4" material., but I can use it for stuff Id normally have used a jigsaw or bandsaw. Shrug

Any tips for using a small plasma cutter?

One assumes that the material must be clean , based on trying to cut some rusty 3/16" stock.

Straight up and down except when piercing...

Anything else I should know?

Gunner, plasma noobie

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Reply to
Gunner Asch
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A 24 amp machine like that should cut 3/16" cleanly and sever 1/4". You do need a stiff 20-amp 120-volt supply, though. Running it on

14-gage wiring or (worse) an extension cord would definitely diminish its capacity.
Reply to
Don Foreman

I find it difficult to freehand to a soapstone line using a plasma torch, as the nozzle obscures my vision so I have to guess where the line is. I generally use templates. The best straight template material I've found is cheap aluminum straightedges from the local tool store - I think a 4' one is about six bucks. They're nice and straight and about 1/8" thick. I've also burned up quite a few wooden yardsticks, which work great but don't take the heat, obviously.

Clamp down something for a fence, something that will allow you to freely slide your torch along it. My torch has a little stem at the very end which is just over 1/8" long, so 1/8" templates work great for this torch. Make a cut on something, and then measure carefully the distance from the fence to the cut edge. Write this down and use it when you design shaped templates or when you space straight templates away from a cut.

Think of a plasma cutter as an electric torch. Pretty cool, really.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

I use a piece of 1" right angle aluminum extrusion as a straight guide. It works really well with the torch on my cutter. Clamp it at either edge of the material and it stays pretty straight.

Bob

Reply to
BobH

I use an aluminum angle. Works well.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus16353

I just cut a 1/4" thick Boiler that was made into a Barbie - an end down and it had a high top - So I got the top I cut off 3' diameter and 2.5 tall... That was a bear doing by hand around the circle as it were. Did it twice - cut out a nice fire ring for the guy instead of scrapping another section. The issue was mostly when the splash back welded the turret nose section. Jerk and it let go, oops...

I have a friend in San Jose that cuts forms out of wood and then traces with a plasma torch. Holds the torch vertically - so the beam is 1/2" from the wood.

The real trick is the ground return MUST be on shinny metal. It also sounds that your nozzle needs to make ohms short with the return through the metal - and then it fires off. Likely a little spot to start.

Once it is hot - a plasma torch will burn brick. I know, I have 3000 degree fire brick with a nice cut. I did that to see if it would. Wow.

It would be interesting to see a picture of your nozzle and source. Might be that of another - and repackaged... :-)

Be sure the air is set when the torch is flowing - e.g. air pressure at flow rate. So many set air pressure at static. That might be what bit the last user.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal. NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.

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Grant Erw>

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Its on a 30 amp breaker..and wired with 10ga wire from the 60 amp distribution panel 12" away (yes...inches)

Im a very good industrial electrician.

Ill have to try some clean 1/4" plate. What I tried was rusty/nasty

Gunner

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Reply to
Gunner Asch

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