Another new toy

[canid]

So I pulled the trigger (har, har) on a new cheap-o plasma cutter.

It's one of these.

about 40% of my work in knifemaking turns out to be cutting out and grinding to profile knife blanks and forging blanks from flat stock. I can't wait til it arrives. I was on the fence between a lathe that was a little smaller than the very smallest I wanted in my shop and a larger one I couldn't really justify affording. I went for this instead, and it left me with enough in my budget for a cheap-o inverter stick welder.

I guess the lathe must wait, but I can't wait to get home and get playing wtih this.

[crashdive123]

Cool.....pun intended.

[Ken]

Question - a serious one.... What can that do that a hack saw or rotary tool cant do neater?

[deanathpc]

I'd love to try one of those.. I'm sure I could do so many more things in life if I did have one. I envy you. If I knew how to use one I'm sure my project list would expand ten fold.. lol

[canid]

speed. also the elimination of most of the steel dust I generate and the avoidance of a lot of extra wear on my mechanical tools. It cuts the work My grinders or elbows have to do by orders of magnitude.

[Ken]

BTW - I've watched industrial plasma cutters and lasers at work. Would you agree that they're far more precise and make a much cleaner cut than this smaller hand-held unit? I'm happy that you're excited about your new tool/toy. I always get a thrill whenever I buy one of my own. I just don't get the advantage of this one over more conventional tools.

[Ken]

speed. also the elimination of most of the steel dust I generate and the avoidance of a lot of extra wear on my mechanical tools. It cuts the work My grinders or elbows have to do by orders of magnitude.

That explains it. Thanks and enjoy!

[Ken]

AND GET THE LATHE ASAP! I loved the German lathe I had. Yeah, Crash, it's probably hanging out with my golf clubs.

[canid]

the industrial ones probably make cleaner cuts (e.g. they have more exactingly engineered air pressure control and nozzle dimensions, as well as some having directly controllable duty cycle per output). None of them hold a candle to water-jetting though. A CNC water-jet table is my ultimate cutting setup dream.

[canid]

I will get the lathe the next month I make good money. I didn't realize how much work I'd have until the month was part over, or I would have budgeted for the 9x19 with the brushless dc motor. It's really the smallest machine I would want to spend any considerable money on.

[crashdive123]

Question - a serious one.... What can that do that a hack saw or rotary tool cant do neater?

I've never used one, but when I cut 4 blanks out of the big (54") using my 4" angle grinder it takes a couple of cutting discs and is rather slow. OK - real slow.

[Ken]

Can this unit be fitted to a guide or some type of jig?

[canid]

Definitely. I could also make undersized templates that just magnet or temporarily glue to the piece and use them as a guide.

I do have a spare 3 axis stepper controller I could rig up to an X/Y table with trigger control. Maybe I'll end up CNCing this after all.

[Ken]

https://www.bosslaser.com/index.php/...raver-machines

[canid]

yeah, a gas or NdYAG laser system would be great. If I ever have the means, I will build one of those. I hadn't had the resources for so long that I gave up on my HV supply for the gas laser head. It takes a pretty big supply to drive a CO2 or Nitrogen gas laser of any decent cutting capacity. Then there's the output optics. Those can be had second hand from time to time, but are very pricy new.

[Ken]

So next question, guys.... will a metal cutting bit set up on a router (router table) work?

http://www.onsrud.com/plusdocs/Doc/i...ng-Router-Bits

[canid]

sort of. I would use a milling machine with an endmill for that though. The vertical mill and it's collar/bearings will be designed to take the lateral forces encountered in cutting steel that way better than the router, and it's speed will be adjustible through the range suitable to the task with the appropriate horsepower, though gantry type router tables have been used to mill some metals with decent success.

A friend of mine has one of these: https://probotix.com/FireBall_v90_cnc_router_kit/

[Ken]

That's a bit (pun) nicer than the one I have. Then again, I've only used mine to make oak mouldings.

[randyt]

a plasma cutter would be a nice addition to a shop.

[randallss7]

I tossed up the thought of a cheap plasma cutter or band saw, I went with a Milwaukee band saw same price and have never looked back I love it. I'm sure I would of loved the plasma cutter also. I will say I think you will have less waist with the plasma cutter when cutting from billets etc and you can cut hardened steel, I see a lot of you cut out saw blades that is hard to do with a band saw, and it eats up cut off wheels and they are very messy and and produce even more waist, I cut many of blade out with a 4 1/2" cut off saw and hated every minute of it. I found a cnc machine you can attach your own plasma cutter to when I was doing my research but cant remember the name of it now might look it up on youtube.