yep a plasma cutter is great, just becareful
a few notes to help you out...
1) it cuts anything that conducts electricity, I have not seen it, but I think that means fingers too,
2) it puts off UV rays similar to welding so it burns skin and eyes
3) it puts off a large amount of fine metal particles and can aggrivate asthma and cause other respritory issues,
4) one side of the plasma arc probably cuts different than the other mine has a straight side cut and a bevel side cut,,, it is because of the swirl of the air pushing thru the arc
5) make sure you use clean compressed air, moisture is your enemy, I have used a constant bleed honeycomb filter, I do not like the toilet paper filter set up Miller offers.. seems junky
6) DO NOT use compressed oxygen
7) I did not see a difference in cutting capacity by using compressed air from Holox vs. compressor compressed air vs. inert gas IE nitrogen??? if you go the compressed gas route make sure you put a good regulator on the tank to keep from ruining your new units gas internals
8) if your manufacturer offers a leather lead cover,, BUY it, you will think it is cheap when you have a piece of molten metal drop on your air line and have to replace or repair it,,,a leather cover with snaps (velcro burns) keeps 99% of liquid metal off your electrode line and air line ( I burned a hole in one air line -easy to do- but luckily had a friend that was trained by the coast guard to repair high pressure air lines, he fixed it for me,, but if I had to buy a new line it would have cost about 350$)
9) if your unit is a high frequency start unit, keep it away from your computer and possibly other electronics... not sure why, but that is what I have heard
10) remember you are blowing melted metal with a 125 psi torch,, the sparks are much more powerful and under more force than a welder so becareful what direction you are holding that torch... I ruined a paint job on a car and burned a stack of moving blankets not realizing,,, that was a BAD day,, oh yea the windshield of my old ford ranger too......d'oh
11) make 2 jigs for your items, one master to make others from and one to use daily, assuming you use wood, they will deteriorate
12) go ahead and buy a hand full of consumables, those parts will burn out right when you are in the middle of a rush job, if your unit came with a kit, I reccomend buying at least one of everything weird in the kit,,,mine has 2 silver rings, I lost one when changing the tips,,,, and a baggie of the 2 different types of tips/ my unit uses 2 tips, and has different types of tips to change out. My unit has different tips for different width kerfs, I believe an .035, and a .085, depending on what you want to do
13) look into options for your unit, the unit I used had an option for an angle headed vs a 90 degree head torch (I have used the angle and think I would have liked the 90* more) and the 4 prong drag cup adapter is nice, but hard to free hand
The pakmaster 75 xl unit.... IIRC it edge cuts 7/8" solid steel, gouges 3/4"............if you decide to cut copper, bronze, or brass, your capacity will diminish about 30%... or at least that is what I have noticed..
if I think of anything else I will post again
have fun
