Questions for TBN members who own plasma cutters

[TMGT]

Another Hypertherm 45 owner, best plasma I've ever used and consumables seem to last a long time and are reasonably priced.

Was looking at buying a larger Hypertherm when I build my table, IOC welding seems to have some of the better pricing.

For air i have a seperator on the main line, another smaller seperator on the inlet and use one of the small orange paint gun filters on the inlet.

Next setup is going to be a bit more complex

 

[BTDT2]

FWIW - I added a second air line for air tool use only, using 50' of loosely coiled 1/2 inch Pex to cool the air ($29). I routed the last ten feet down the wall with a ball valve drain at the bottom and than back up to the filter system. I added a second regulator/separator ($30), and whole house water filter ($25) converted to use loose desiccant ($15) for a total of less than $100. I can bake any water saturated desiccant in our home oven at 275 for three hours versus buying expensive cartridges from the air-dryer vendors. Works great and I still use the 'old' shop-air system for cleaning and other non water sensitive use

 

[downsizingnow48]

I've had a Hypertherm 45 for a couple years now. I also got an Ingersoll-Rand dryer. I put a filter/separator on the inlet side of the dryer, and another one together with an air pressure gauge on the machine stand right before the machine. No issues at all. I got the Hypertherm for two reasons. One is the option of a machine torch that I might want in future. The second is I did not want to have to figure out if a problem was caused by something to do with the machine or something to do with the operator. Now I know if there is a problem it is caused by me!

 

[Jeepnford]

Another vote for the Hypertherm PM45XP. It's a beast for it's small size. I built an iron pipe cooler similar to shield arc's except my long pipes are horizontal and I angled the entire thing slightly down on one end and put in drain valves on the low end. I also put the Hypertherm air filter on the machine and my consumables seem to last quite a while.

 

[yomax4]

I am considering investing in a plasma cutter.
I would seldom be cutting material over 1/2 thick and generally like to purchase American made quality equipment. My preference would be either Miller or Lincoln however, I could be swayed to other brands with enough TBN endorsements.
Now a few questions. How well does plasma cutting work on rusty, dirty, or painted steel?
How fussy are they in regard to compressed air? I have plenty of shop air capacity but no drier on the air network.
What about cutting vertical or overhead? Thinking trailer or grain box repair.
Are consumable parts expensive or more or less fall into the same catigory cost wise as mig welding tips?

Thanking all for whatever insight however trivial. I recognize a plasma cutter is not a casual purchase and will not replace my mid century Kalamazoo 8 x 16 horizontal band saw but for cutting notches, panels, miters or plate, it appears plasma cutting solves a lot of problems.

B. John

Lincoln and Miller don't manufacture plasma cutters in the USA. They are only assembled here from sourced parts. Pretty much how all of the brands do business these days. Doesn't mean they are Bad by any means.

 

[TMGT]

I believe Hypertherm was making the torches for a number of other name brand plasma units at least up until a few years ago, Miller comes to mind but I can't remember for sure.

 

[Budweiser John]

Well, TBN members what an amazing endorsement for Hypertherm. Thanks for all the reply’s.
On the trail now to find the best deal as i’ve Several projects on the docket in the near future.
Thanks to Shield Arc for the pictures of his air system and to others who commented on the importance of clean dry air.

B. John

 

[muddstopper]

Just wondering if anybody has tried to adapt a big truck air drier to their shop compressor. I have a airbrake international I am robbing parts off of and it has a air drier to prevent brake line freeze ups. I want to use the dryer for my compressor, just havent gotten around to hooking it up. Looks like it would be a siple plug it into the air line between compressor and tank, but I havent even looked at whether it is feasible or how hard it would be to actually do.

 

[FredH]

Just wondering if anybody has tried to adapt a big truck air drier to their shop compressor. I have a airbrake international I am robbing parts off of and it has a air drier to prevent brake line freeze ups. I want to use the dryer for my compressor, just havent gotten around to hooking it up. Looks like it would be a siple plug it into the air line between compressor and tank, but I havent even looked at whether it is feasible or how hard it would be to actually do.

Hmm , Interesting Thought . I usually rebuild the drier on My semi , cheaper than buying a rebuilt one . I know most have 12 volts going to them , But I can't remember What exactly that did , But was told that is would work without it . Only issue I foresee is when ever it pops off at cut-off pressure , I would hope that it would be enclosed in a box if in the shop , or located remotely , Otherwise that constant pop off noise would get to be annoying at the least .


Fred H.

 

[shaeff]

I bought an Ingersoll Rand air dryer. Believe it or not the garbage can full of water works better! At the bottom of the after cooler you need to install ball valves, so you can drain the water out of the pipes. Also a drain at the bottom of the copper coils, to drain the water out.

Thanks for the details, looking forward to getting more life out of my tips. I have a motor guard filter and desiccant dryer, I also drain the compressor before every use with the plasma. I live in NY, it can get quite humid in the summer so having dry air can be challenging at times.

I'm no artist, but sometimes people ask me to make stuff for them. Cut this out freehand as a gif or a coworker's daughter. She loves solar system stuff.

 

[shaeff]

Sorry for double post, TBN being weird and not letting me upload more than one pic.

Cut this freehand too, 1/2" thick. No problem with the PM45 (not the xp, mine is older).

 

[Big Barn]

Hmm , Interesting Thought . I usually rebuild the drier on My semi , cheaper than buying a rebuilt one . I know most have 12 volts going to them , But I can't remember What exactly that did , But was told that is would work without it . Only issue I foresee is when ever it pops off at cut-off pressure , I would hope that it would be enclosed in a box if in the shop , or located remotely , Otherwise that constant pop off noise would get to be annoying at the least .


Fred H.

Fred and muddstopper: This truck air dryer was installed by my mechanic years ago and works extremely well.



The last photo also shows the small "radiator" on the left of the compressor used as an inter cooler.


The white PVC pipe on the bottom is routed to the outside of the building thus minimizing the “pop off” but still scares the crap out of anyone outside.

 

[muddstopper]

I have been watching some truck air dryer vids on utube. It seems that there are basically 2 types of dryers for trucks. A 3 line and a 4 line, the 3 line being older and probably what I have. Second issue is CFM rating. I have no ideal what kind of cfms a truck air compressor puts out. I know they recharge fairly quick, but their air tanks are also a lot smaller than a shop compressor. At any rate, it seems that one would have to match up the air dryer to the cfms of their shop compressor in order for it to work properly. Other than that, and the popoff noise, it should be fairly simple to plumb one into a shop compresssor. Not sure about the 12volt, but I think that is probably for some sort of sending unit and would be unnecessary for a shop system. As for the popoff, the compressor ics Bigbarn posted shows the air dryer mounted on the compressor, right beside the pup. I know on trucks the dyer is usually mounted under or behind the cab somewhere on the frame rails. I see no problem runing the lines outside the shop to the dryer, and then back inside to the storage tank. This would keep the popoff noise outside the working area, and probably scare the crap out of anybody walking out back of the shop. Which I think would be good for a laugh or two. LOL. Anyways, somebody figure this out and post how they did it and how well it works.

 

[Big Barn]

The pop off exit is actually at the FRONT of my shop. Here’s a pic with my homemade “muffler”

 

[Fallon]

Just wondering if anybody has tried to adapt a big truck air drier to their shop compressor. I have a airbrake international I am robbing parts off of and it has a air drier to prevent brake line freeze ups. I want to use the dryer for my compressor, just havent gotten around to hooking it up. Looks like it would be a siple plug it into the air line between compressor and tank, but I havent even looked at whether it is feasible or how hard it would be to actually do.

I looked into it when I was setting mine up. But as Colorado doesn't have humidity & i'd have to source one, it wasn't worth it. But others have done it sucessfully.

They are just a desicant type drier with extra parts & plumbing to occasionally dry out the desicant with some compressed air. Not always the most efficient, but very practical. They eat up usable air when regenerating. You need to check the CFM rating on the drier and/or pump on the truck to see if it will meet your usage requirements.

Desicant can be regenerated to dry out absorbed water. But the media can be contaminated with oil that inevitably shows up in oil lubed compressed air systems & that can't be removed. So you need to replace the media occasionally even in automatic systems.

 

[FTG-05]

In one of the videos I've been watching on YT about plasma cutters, someone mentioned having one of these in line dessicant dryers. Are these worth installing them just before the sir goes into the machine? This particular type can have the filter media recharged as opposed to having to replace it.

ttps://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-1-4-in-NPT-Desiccant-Dryer-41103HOM/205331891

 

[Fallon]

I have DeVilbiss 130500 CAMAIR CT30 Series Wall-Mounted Desiccant Air Dryer/Filter System Amazon.com: DeVilbiss 13 CAMAIR CT3 Series Wall-Mounted Desiccant Air Dryer/Filter System: Automotive on my setup, although I think I paid half that price for mine.

I can't say if it works as well as I'd like, as here in Colorado we have no humidity to make it work. A couple hundred hours of run time in the past few years & the indicator still says it's as good & dry as day 1. The bigger the amount of desicant, to a degree, the better they work. Air needs to contact the desicant to dry out. So on a small desicant container a lot of air can sneak through ther beads without being dried.

I dry all my air as I use a lot for sandblasting as well as other things. Wet air makes the sand (media) stick & not flow properly. Easier too plumb up 1 air stream & not contaminate my pipes.

A smaller desicant pack near the plasma would be better than nothing by a fair bit. As long as you kept enough flow.

 

[Stimw]

I have had a Miller Spectrum 625 for over 15 years and am very happy with it.
Until I retired 1 1/2 years ago I was repairing construction equipment with heavy mortar and cement on it.
I had to cut a lot of 3/8" and 1/2" bolts off with heavy covering of mortar/cement on them.
With O/A it will pop and shower me with hot M & C.
The Plasma arc is so hot that it just melts through the coatings!
The pic is when I cut some 3/4" plate making brackets to attach forks to my Branson Tractor quick change FEL.
It was really slow and over the machine rating but it cut it!
It will cut drag or stand off.
I had about 85' of black iron pipe to my Plasma area so water condensed very well.
I recently ordered more tips from China/Ebay and they look good, haven't tried them yet.
Was that rusty? It doesn't care, rust or paint!

 

[pgk]

I have a old Miller Spectrum 2050, works great for what I use it for. If I ever replace it I'll go with a Hypertherm, overall they are tough to beat. CEP I like your home made cooler that you made! My air compressor is almost as old as me, 1966 Kellogg pump runs at 300 rpm which is probably why it still runs so good, I used to paint and way back when I picked up a Devilbiss DAD500 DAD-5™ Desiccant Air Dryer Filtration System to keep moisture at bay, I found that it also work great for plasma cutting too.


Pete

 

[Sysop]

I just went through the same thing. I really couldn't see spending the extra on a Hypertherm. I ended up using the "price match" page on Everlast's website and asked if they could match the AHP 60A AlphaCut price, they called with a really nice discount on the PowerPlasma 60s; so that's what I now have. Dollar for dollar I don't think I went wrong.