plasma cutter any good

Edited: 1/11/2008 5:03:05 PM by pimptruckman92

i just got a hobart 250A plasma cutter & slightly used. has anyone had any expierence with one? i used it a little before i bought it and no porblems but when i got home and used it, it seemed super slow. (twisted-minis im hoping youll read this). any one???

also the new ones are 250CI whats the difference between the two? i cant find anything online different.

When you used it where you bought it from (I assume) what PSI was it running at? Plasmas are meant to run at a certain pressure. Mine is supposed to run at 70 PSI on the regulator on the plasma, but the regulator on the compressor needs to be 120 or however high it goes for it to run fast enough. Otherwise it prematurely runs out of air and will not cut all the way through, or you need to go slower to get a full cut.

Edited: 1/11/2008 5:44:51 PM by pimptruckman92

well theres no air line to connect. its a hobart airforce 250A and theres no guage built in, when i used it before i bought it im guessing the comsumable was still good then i got home and it didnt last after a bit. the machine had about 1 hour use, i'll just have to ask the guy i bought it from.

also i forgot to mention in the 1st post: what i meant about it bein super slow was the air recovery time. i had to wait for it to refill twice and i hadnt even cut an inch of 1/16 thick mild steel

and thanks for the help seth. frank is lookin badass by the way.

the 250a sucks i had it for like a month the built in compressor wont keep up it plain sucks i used it for some sheet metal and left too much slag and it wont even cut 3/16 without running out of air i just sold mine and bought a hobart 625 now that one is badd ass compared to the 250 i think you are better off with the china made ones from ebay they cost the same

Edited: 1/12/2008 1:33:27 AM by pimptruckman92

well i bought it from my future father in law and he used it to cut 1/4 plate. i just needed to test it some more, seems to be a lot better now i think it was just dirty metal not making good contact with the ground and once i got the arc going its golden.

plasma cutter with built in comp =

also it works best plugged directly into the outlet if you use a dinky long extension cord it deprives it of current ...dont know if this applies to you but just throwing it out there

no i didrectly plug it in, no extension cord. but it works pretty good i just had to play with it. it fills up the tank then once you start cuttin keep goin until your done the comp runs while in use to maintain pressure. but if you lose contact or let off trigger it has to fill up. its not as bad as orginally thought. but if i ever get another, larger cutter i will have a large shop compressor first. i dont have a large comp for my garage YET. that is the only reason i got one with a built in aircomp and i got a deal on it. only had 1 hour of use when i bought it. thanks everyone.