-- I have an inverter type cutter and like it. I am wondering if plasma welding is worth looking into. I don't find much info on the process or the best use for plasma welding. I do know that for cutting under 1/2 inch stock, plasma is very nice.
Wanda and Geoffrey Gangel
Plasma welding is a completely different beast than Plasma cutting.
The machines are quite expensive and extremely complicated to set up. They are only used in the high end welding fields of aerospace, scientific instruments and medical appliances.
Plasma welding is very rarely done by hand anymore. It is almost exclusively a robotic process.
It is an excellent process for joining extremely difficult or thin materiels.
I know of a used equipment dealer in Seattle who has two 100 amp plasma welders for sale. Both came from Hanford nuclear research facilities. One is a fairly new Thermal arc machine.
Plasma welding torches have to be assembled from many small parts that are rstricted to a narrow amperage range. So for 10 amp work you use completely different parts than for 20 amp work. Quite a pain in the ass to set up. We have an old Thermal arc unit at school, and while it is an interesting item. TIG is much more practical.
Manual Plasma welding is almost unheard of. The only machine we have is a Thermal Arc 100 amp plasma welder from
1972. It works, but we don't have a program based around it.Kind of fun to play with, but it takes a little while to set it all up. Ours requires a TIG machine for the welding current, so it is set up to be connected to a Hobart Cybertig 300. We only have 1 Hobart Cybertig left, and if it dies we will have to pay to have a new interlink cable made so it can be hooked up to a Syncrowave.
Thermal Arc is the biggest maker of Plasma Welders, but their website kind of sucks. Just a lot of downloadable PDF files.
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