difference btwn thermal dynamics cutmaster and pacmaster?

Ask yourself:

How thick is the thickest material you'll need to cut? 30 amp plasma cutters are a lot cheaper than 40 amp or 60 amp versions.

How much do you want to spend?

Before you quit torching, here are some things to check:

1. your regulators are quality units and working correctly
2. there are no leaks anywhere in your gas plumbing (a little soap in a can of water and an old paintbrush help a lot here)
3. you are using the correct tip size
4. your gas pressures are correct for the tip size you are using
5. your tip has the correct amount of preheat (most manufacturers sell tips in light medium or heavy preheat, using heavy preheat tips on cleanish steel results in melted steel being blown through and sticking as tight slag)
6. you are manipulating the torch correctly

Only #6 is hard to learn from a book. Lots of guys try to make clean cuts on thin plate and have trouble. I only torch cut steel 3/8" thick or thicker, anything thinner I cut with my Hypertherm 350 (current model is 380).

Grant Erwin

And the plasma torches are not all that clean under the cut - might have the thickness of the metal (or more) of melted metal. Some slag and some real metal. It has to be taken off to look nice.

I think the only pretty cut is a grit based water cutter. But the metal rusts. :-)

Martin [ still wishing for one anyway] [and the room to put it ] Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Grant Erw>

Actually, a friend of mine has the coolest cutting system I've ever seen. It is designed to cut small parts with ultra-high precision. It uses a very thin bronze (I think) wire in a bath of pure water (pure as in non-conducting). The wire has high current run through it, and it can slice off up to about 6" thickness at a time -- but the length and width is limited to around 10-20" (I don't recall the exact amount). For inside cuts, you have to drill a hole, but then the machine can self-thread the wire through the hole.

I may not have described it exactly correctly, but it is one neat machine. Of course, it costs just a wee bit more than a plasma cutter ... !

Andy

E-lectrical D-ischarge M-achining, or EDM, is the reason so many tool and die makers are now out of work. What you are describing is wire EDM. These are very cool. If you want to for example machine a perfect hexagon in hardened tool steel, these will happily do it.

Big, big bucks, though.

GWE

I had a machinist visit me recently, he was picking stuff that I sold to him via ebay. He explained to me how EDMs work, tat was quite impressive.

EDM machine

Gunner

Company and product name ?

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Andrew H. Wakefield wrote:

I'll have to ask him the next time I see him. As others have reminded me, the generic name for the process is EDM, electric discharge machining. I do know it cost a pretty penny ...