cut 50 plasma cutter

[Scrounga]

I'm a hobby user and I purchased one from ALDI and it’s great for what I need. I guess the biggest question for you is what are you doing with it. If your cutting 5-6mm plate or bigger a lot then buy a “quality unit” but if it’s for occasional use and up to about 4-5mm thick then a cheaper unit will probably suit you. The things I have used it for are cutting out shapes in sheet metal for screens and cutting up metal table frames to scrap them. I did use a $2500 Lincoln plasma cutter and it’s the ducks nuts, cut through 10mm beams like a knife through butter but I couldn’t justify the cost for me. To be honest I could get away without one as I don’t use it as much as I thought I would. I tried to cut a 90mm hole in thin stainless steel with a metal hole saw. It stuffed the saw and barely touched the stainless and then I remembered the plasma cutter, told you it doesn’t get used much, and had the hole cut in less than 30 seconds. If it’s general cutting of flat bar, tube, square section in the shed then I would opt for a horizontal band saw, even a second had one. I bought a used one and it gets used almost daily and for cutting out straight cuts in plate steel then I tend to use the grinder as I can get a better edge. It’s very much like cutting with oxy acetylene but much faster in that it’s hard to get a nice edge unless you’re fairly experienced and use it often. Sorry it got so long winded. One more thing if you buy a cheapie, try and make sure it uses generic consumables that you can get easily on line as proprietary parts can be expensive. Hope this helps a little and good luck. Cheers Stuart, Australia.