Help with Plasma Cutter purchase

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

I'm looking to buy a used plasma cutter? Any of you guys got any experince with one and some advice?

Also Harbor has one around $500.00. Anyone have one? How does it work if you do? thanks Lewis

[Matt Meiser]

The 40A Chinese units have reasonably good reputations but there's basically no support. I looked pretty hard at them but in the end decided to go with a name brand one even thought he cost was about double. I went with a Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 38. I would have gotten a Miller but the Miller dealer was out of stock and the Thermal Dynamics dealer had it in stock. I'd probably look pretty hard at the Miller 375 Extreme today which has the same capacity but is a tiny little thing.

[Eric DeSilva]

I'm looking to buy a used plasma cutter? Any of you guys got any experince with one and some advice?

Also Harbor has one around $500.00. Anyone have one? How does it work if you do? thanks Lewis

I got lucky and found a Hypertherm* 380s on CL for about $500. The other brands I'd look for are ESAB or Thermadyne.

* Edited. Must have had Matt's post on my brain--mine's a Hypertherm, not a Thermal Dynamics (Thermadyne's PC brand). Matt, I think you actually ended up with a better plasma cutter. In fact, if I bought new, I would have gotten the 39. All the advice I read was to stick with brand that just did plasma cutters--Thermadyne, ESAB, or Hypertherm--for best bang for the buck.

[John Pratt]

I picked up the Miller 675 Extreme and so far no issues. It is amazing how well this thing cuts for its small size.

(small hijack)
I do a fair amount of metal work, but I really got it because I wanted to get into metal art. Now if I can just find a source for patterns for a hand held Plasma, I will be set. Everything I have found so far is for the CNC plasma machines like the Torchmate.

[Eric DeSilva]

Now if I can just find a source for patterns for a hand held Plasma, I will be set. Everything I have found so far is for the CNC plasma machines like the Torchmate.

I keep wanting to pick up one of those dinosaur skeleton models--you know the ones made out of thin balsa or pine that slot together--scale it up and cut it out of steel...

[Dave Johnson29]

Also Harbor has one around $500.00. Anyone have one? How does it work if you do? thanks Lewis

Hi Lewis,

I have one of the HF ones which I bought about 3 years back. It is the earlier model to the one they now sell but I imagine the current one is as good.

It gets a lot of work and it has worked very well and I have no complaints at all. I am not sure what Matt means by "no support," as HF carries all of the parts and consumables for it.

As for a used one, the main thing to check for is does it have Pilot Arc. Without that, if you are cutting something like perforated metal you have to re-strike the arc at every hole.

[Matt Meiser]

What I mean is that there's no service network. If something goes wrong with your $520 machine after the warranty runs out you are on your own as far as troubleshooting and repairing it, even if you can get parts from Harbor Freight. Under warranty Harbor Freight would just exchange it. Consumables you can get at HF right now but what happens when they find someone to supply it cheaper and they use different consumables? Maybe they'll have them mail order, maybe not. And you wont' get them anytime quick if they do. Granted, you could buy a second $520 machine before reaching the same investment as a name brand machine. Don't get me wrong, I like Harbor Freight for some stuff. This is just one item that made me really uncomfortable.

+1 on the pilot arc. I wouldn't even consider one that didn't have it.