Pilot Arc Plasma Cutter

This is the third CUT series of plasma cutters I've purchased over the last 15 years, and this one performs quite well. The air pressure gauge on the front panel is nice to have, the controls are laid out nicely with an easily readable amperage readout. I've only made a trial cut in some 2 inch angle iron (3/16" thickness) and the cut was clean and fairly quick, with only a little slag left to chip off. This is a moderately lightweight machine, being inverter powered it's compact, easy to carry and move to jobs, and can run off 110 or 220V using the included adapter. This is the least expensive plasma cutter I've operated, and I'm pleased with it overall. I do have a few things I don't like about it, such as the power switch being partially blocked by the air regulator outlet (easy to fix, either mount the regulator in a different spot, or have a "master switch" to turn it remotely), the reinforced vinyl air hose that comes along should be replaced with a good quality air hose (I'll use the included one for a bit, but not a fan of vinyl hoses for air pressure, especially where it may come in contact with sparks/slag/molten metal), the hose clamps included could be higher quality, and the instructions are more or less just a few pages of safety warnings, but no information regarding duty cycle, recommended air pressure/slope (if running in 4T mode)/amperage chart for various materials and thicknesses. All these are my own personal preferences (except the hose clamps), and the settings chart can be found online at any number of sites (although 40 amps, 60 psi is generally a decent starting point IMO, if in 2T mode, slope has little effect, 4T I adjust the ramp up and down on the fly, but 2T is my normal operation mode).

This is incredible. I took a chance on this because the reviews were so good and I have been pretty impressed. The most important thing to look for is that no touch arc. The torch cable is long and the torch feels pretty good in the hand. While I have not tried a super straight cut or test its thickness claims, it has worked awesome on cutting scrap and I used it a few days rebuilding a rusty yard trailer that fell apart. I cut both rusty nasty steel off the trailer and cut up the new pieces to weld back in and I'm sure it saved me hours of work with a grinding wheel or gas torch. It is a bit power hungry on 110 volt. I kept tripping a 20 amp breaker when cutting long bits or when the arc wasn't stable. I do not fault the unit because I think it would be best on a 220 volt plug with higher amp settings. I'm installing a 220 plug on its own breaker for future uses. Hoping to try this on a gas generator soon for scrapping in the field. Overall this thing is a great buy at 170, despite the cheesy air fittings. I'm shopping for replacement parts for all the air stuff. The PTC and barbed fittings are straight thread, which is kind of funny. I'm not sure if the regulator is NPT or straight, but I'll replace it too if needed. I think all the air hoses could be routed and mounted much more efficiently and compact than they came with the hose clamps and such. I also found the ground wire to be pretty short considering how long the torch lead is. The ground clamp is also weird, but usable.

For a sub $300 plasma cutter with pilot arc, it does pretty well. I'll start off with the quirks of my machine. First, the screws that mount the air pressure regulator screw into double nuts on the inside. This means that you'll never mount the regulator without either opening up the box (as I did, see photos) or having loose nuts inside the case (super dangerous). Luckily, opening up the box required only a phillips #2 screwdriver. While inside, I did snap a few photos, in case any of you know what a plasma cutter should look like inside. I installed the regulator mount, double nutted, and put a dab of super glue on the backside. A couple of sheet metal screws would have been a better solution for the manufacturer. For what it's worth, I did not feel like I had done any damage removing the cover to install the regulator, everything inside was tidy and well secured. Second is the hilariously short "ground". Really, it's about 46.5 inches (120 cm) long. This will need to be addressed immediately for most of us. Third is the plug. It's a 50 amp dryer plug, which I suppose is adequate but expect to install one (NEMA 6-50) or convert. I adapted n extension cord, as I did not want to cut anything before verifying that it worked. Fouth is the cord itself, which is 12 gauge. Theoretically, I think it can just handle the amperage (25 amps on 2 legs is 50 amps), but it seems pretty weak compared to the outlet that it requires. I'm pretty sure that means that the unit is over-rated so you could probably get by on a 30 amp 230v plug. YMMV, but I don't see any way that 2-12 is going to carry 50 amps at 80% duty cycle without a fire hazard. I knocked off 1 star for these. On to readying and use. The air connectors are weak, but probably adequate for 60 psi, which is going to be your max. Set your air supply (at the compressor or in-line) at that so you never exceed 60 psi. I do not trust the pressure gauge supplied, but if my line pressure is only 60, then I am unlikely to rupture anything. For the quarter inch that I cut (poorly, more on that later), 40 psi is about right. A 1/4 npt male threaded air nipple will thread right into the regulator for quick connect. I used thread sealant and had no leaks. Make sure all electrical fittings are clean and tight. As an aside, dual voltage units are known to be weak in their switching (from 115 to 230v and back). It's always a good idea to not utilize this feature and just run 230v, if you can. This is true even with well known high end welding equipment. Also, make sure you clean the ground area. The torch can cut cut through slag and paint, but the ground cannot. So, I marked up and attempted to cut a piece of 1/4" angle. Nothing. After checking over everything, I found that the small tip under the cone was not tight (there are 2 metal tips under the ceramic cone). After that, I could cut. Almost immediately, I broke the standoff, and the result is a pretty crappy freehand cut. They'll get better as I dial in amperage and pressure, but I'll get a better standoff. The pilot arc worked flawlessly and the cut started off fairly neat. So, initial impressions... The plasma cutter performs basically as advertised. It is around 1/5th the cost of a comparable Esab unit, and prices equivalent to a set of torches. It's smaller and lighter than torches and won't get blow-uppy. My generator should be able to power it for most cuts. I tried to get the least expensive pilot arc unit on Amazon just to see how it would perform. Aside from the stuff above, all of which is correctable, it's a decent unit. In the future, I may upgrade the cord and correct the crimp on fittings as preventative maintenance, but I do want to see how well it does as built. I'll update if I have anything worth noting. Edit: I added a photo of a better cut with amperage at 38, air at 45psi and a skate on the torch. Looks quite a bit nicer, and upon . Pilot arc does work well, I added a shot of the torch . The dial labeled "A" is amperage, the one labeled "S" sets the delay time for shutting off the air after the trigger is released. I've only cut a couple feet so far, but it impresses for the cost. I tested the pressure gauge against a known good one, and they read close to identical up to 60 psi. I thought that I would find the torch sad and low quality and it is not. I am even finding that I like the trigger guard as it prevents activation when I lay the torch down on the table. This is a feature that I thought was decidedly "homeowner" level but I like it. Also, Amazon wants me to mention the sheerness of this product, it has none. No sheerness whatsoever. It's completely opaque. Thickness, as always, is in the eye of the beholder.

This is an amazing little machine. Easy to assemble. Easy to use. Well worth the money. With that said, I will not be using it on a daily basis. It will be used on a farm/ranch. So some months it will be used more than others. But it works very well for its intended purposes.

This cost efficient plasma cutter has some issues straight out of the box, proper assembly and PSI directions aside, the digital readout controlled by a manual knob does not track amperage as accurately as required. You can manually move the amperage knob nearly 30% and only register approximately a 4 amp indifference on the readout so dialing in 'accuracy' is nonexistant on this particular model which is key to it's success as you learn the parameters of what to dial in for cutting. This is THE most critical necessity for function - and this one is broken out of the box. The max should represent '50' (Amps) but it doesn't register 50 amps on the readout, rather only 48/49. Cautiously, the trigger has no trigger guard so you must be VERY careful when using this unit as it doesn't possess standard safety protections which could certainly hurt an individual. The metallic guide rail that attached to the torch tip failed within 5 minutes and wouldn't retain proper pressure to hold onto the tip for guiding. Not a big deal but it is designed for lifetime improvement of a torch tip and with this not sufficiently working, you can't utilize it or purchase a roller guide as this component is just too feeble and won't stay in place. No where IN the directions does it indicate if the torch tip is for the lower amperage or higher amperage use, which makes a critical point if you use plasma cutters. Additionally, there is no user guide for what pressure to maintain for what amperage based on metal thickness. It's not bad, but clearly has several shortfalls and represents poor dialing/digital interface quality. I'm reaching out to Amazon to see if they will replace it since it has a 90 warranty. I'll update once I get feedback. Update: 13 Sept 2022. Complete FAILURE. Product will NOT start an arc more than once. You have to shut it down and restart it. EVERY. TIME. Complete junk. Bought new tips, went through another 10, dedicated 220/ 50 AMP circuit, two compressor, two dessicant dryers: this machine is a complete and utter POS. Going to the garbage because of course, Amazon won't do anything beyond 90D. $200. down the drain. DO NOT BUY THIS GARBAGE!

The title says it all, is it legit 50 amp, hell no, not even close, probably closer to 35 maybe 40 amp but I'm leaning towards 30-35 amp true power output. It uses non high frequency blow back style (the flow of air through the nozzle causes a circuit to close allowing the pilot arc to ignite and stay lit, so it's safe on sensitive electronics or even to use on cars and won't dry anything unless you like cut into the wires or ECU. I run it on 220v with a 50 amp breaker, it has its own dedicated double pole 50 amp 220 breaker in a sub panel that only has 2 of those and two 30 amp double pole 220 breakers, so am not going to have power issues at all, it cuts using very low air pressure in my opinion. Typically to cut something I would never go below 40psi period but I can easily cut sheet steel with one side painted with only 25amps and 30 psi. And it jams through it as fast as I can move the torch. The stupid stand off deal sucks, flip it around and use the side that is connected to the other side to clip onto the torch while the side with two separate halves is the side to touch the work, that way your guide deal won't slip or move as it will super easy if you clip it on the way it comes clipped on. Just be careful not to break the ceramic cone part. Works way way better that way. Gonna run it on some t6 6061 3/8" and 1/4" plate and see how it does with aluminum since that is a difficult area for plasma cutters or at least that has been my experience. Cutting round stock it should be able to blast through 0.5" stuff but truth is, it doesn't seem to have enough cut power to do so, who knows, I will grab some rebar to double check, all in all for the price and the size. It's ability to run 110 or 220v and it coming with the adapter to make that work, the only thing you need to buy is a male threaded pneumatic quick connect fitting, unless you want to hard line it to something but then that kills the whole point of it being tiny and light weight. There are two places the air goes into the machine, I find that kinda dumb but I'm guessing one is just for the air pressure gauge up front the other is the actual air that is used to feed the torch. Why not just add a y fitting internally I can't explain. It would keep shit much easier and more simple, less material and less crap to leak or fail. Anyhow look if you are in the market for a plasma cutter and don't need to cut anything over about 18 or 20mm so 4/5" or 3/4" ish cut(u will need to hit it witg a flapper disc after cutting something that thick, pretty much anything over half inch or so is gonna have those tell tale plasma lines. Below that it cuts super clean. Ymwv obviously but it's cheap, light, small, delivery is quick, and it comes pretty much everything to work out the box, the only lane thing is this, it has a nice long torch line, maybe 10foot or so but the ground clamp wire is all of 3 or 4 foot long, you want to connect as close to where you plan to cut as possible to ensure a steady clean uninterrupted cut, it kinda kills the point of thr long torch line since the material has to be clamped right next to the machine. Still a killer buy

There is a learning curve to this machine. Over 30psi it blows out the pilot ark. Sometimes I got to shut it off and on again. It does cut and is cheap. Will cut 3/8 steel. You need a 20 amp breaker on 110. 220 works all day.

No issues has worked well for me haven’t had to use it for any heavy cutting applications but has run perfect every time I have used it on multiple metals.