Plasma cutter - what wears out?

Hello everybody.

I've only been reading this newsgroup for a couple of days but I've been farm-welding for over 30 years. I have a Lincoln 225 buzz box that I've had for over 25 years, a set of oxy/acetylene torch and tanks, and the plasma cutter that I bought earlier this year. And a bunch of grinders, saws, sheet metal brake, nibblers etc.

I bought the Esab 550 plasma cutter. It came with a box of consumables. The box has a swirl ring, a plunger, 3 or 4 nozzles and a similar number of electrodes.

What wears out during use? Is it necessary to replace the nozzle with the electrode? How can I tell what needs replacing?

I'm on my last nozzle and electrode. I've been replacing both when it got to where it wouldn't cut cleanly. There was quite a bit of electrode left but the end was eroded pretty badly. I have saved some of the electrodes and nozzles that I replaced.

Tonight I made a 64" cut through 1/2" thick grader blade edge using the last new nozzle and electrode. I got all but about 6" of the cut made and it started going south on me. It wouldn't cut all the way through even with the power turned to the max setting. I took the nozzle off and the electrode looked pretty good, only a little eroded. The nozzle had lots of slag stuck to it.

I used a file to dress the nozzle and clean it up, and I used the same file to restore the electrode to a very slightly tapered tip. That made it start cutting like new again and I was able to finish the cut. I tried to do the same thing with another nozzle and electrode using a bench grinder last week. It wasn't pretty.

Tomorrow I'll weld that piece of grader blade to the lip of a front end loader bucket...and then I'll go look for some new electrodes and nozzles.

Any recommendations for online suppliers?

-- Jack East Tennessee

Reply to
Jack Hunt
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Nozzles and electrodes wear out onn a regular basis. The rate of wear will depend on how hot you run the machine, and how much drag-cuttingg you do. Any time the nozzle actually touches the base metal the tip will wear a little faster.

Zap Plasmatherm seems to have been bought by a German company. Here is their new site.

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Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Thanks. Great info. The website has a good Q&A page about plasma consumables that answered all my questions.

I'm using Mozilla Firefox, it was easier to get on the site by going to

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without the frameset info but that's mostly because of the popup blockers built in to Firefox.

It would be great if they had their prices listed, but alas, they want me to fill out a questionnaire and send in my firstborn to get a quote.

I'm going to pick up a few nozzles and electrodes where I bought the machine so I'll have a reference for prices. Then I'll ask for a quote and see where I stand.

Their PDF view of my torch seems to have the handheld and machine-operated version reversed, so ordering without being able to see the actual parts could be an adventure.

-- Jack

Reply to
Jack Hunt

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