Cebora plasma prof 70 - anyone got some experience?

Anyone know anything about this machine? I'm looking for a plasma cutter that can cut up to 12mm nicely, and sever bigger stuff. This is an old 2nd hand unit and was made in Italy. Looks pretty solid, weighs 85 kilos and is three phase driven (a requirement). I understand it's not as effective per amp as a modern unit, only rated to max 20mm which is a lot less than a 70A modern unit would do. But I can live with that, personally, if it's durable and does a good job inside it's performance sheet.

But what's this about older units using up consumables and torches faster? How is the cut quality? Also is there a differnce between single and three phase transformer units. I know that's a big diff in welders, a 1ph transformer rectifier puts out a pretty shitty arc when stick welding, but a 3 phase one feels as smooth as an inverter. Same deal here maybe?

I've heard some people tell me this old unit will work really well if I put a modern torch on it. I figured the torch was just the torch, like on a TIG machine, nice to have a nice one but it's the machine that matters most.

Check out Welding Direct.com
Cebora makes plasma power sources badged for several different company's plasma product line.
I have never used Cebora power sources but have been told there fair units, for what that's worth.
Torch and torch parts availability are most important thing, When older plasma generators fail generally there not worth repairing. soooo if it's over 10 years old buy cheap and that's only if consumables are available.
Early plasma equipment is in fact not as efficient as newer units, Plasma has evolved dramatically over the last 20 years.
Modern Air plasma generators work just fine on single phase. Most manufacturers offer there plasma power sources to be operated on single or three phase, some units duty cycle may increase very slightly when operated on three phase, as far as output generally a 60 amp air plasma generator will provide a full 60 amp output on either single or three phase.

1-phase is completely ruled out in my case. I cannot run any decently sized single phase unit without popping the breakers. I have read about people buying 50A single phase inverter plasma cutters and not being able to use them, pops the breaker after 20-30 seconds.

I am just a home shop owner with the typical civilian power outlets and fuse sizes for a residental european household (uk excluded). That means I don't have access to anything larger than a 16 amp single phase outlet, I have one of those outlets in my shop, the rest are 12 amps. For anything that draws more power than that I use regular 400V 3 phase instead. Almost all my larger equipment is 3 phase.

So I actually need for any decently sized plasma cutter to be a 3 phase version or I cannot run it.

I've been told consumables should be available, standardized parts I understand, could swap out with some other brands even I am told. Mostly I am wondering, quality of cut and rate of consumable usage with an older unit. Or maybe the differences are overblown. I can definitely see this old unit is not as effective, but I can live with that if it's a good quality build that will last and not let the smoke out.

JIm Colt 'splains it all here:
MOSFET vs IGBT ? for modern inverter plasma cutting machines

I have a few older xformer models and they doo eat consumables (cheap Chinese copy consumables)
The new xp65 at work on a C.N.C. table....I am amazed how much cutting I have done with the same consumables. The life is amazing.

I've read that actually, done a lot of research on this subject. But I am wondering if those are 1ph transformers units it's being referred to and that takes me to the difference in quality output between a 1 and 3 ph transformer in a welding situation and I ask myself, maybe it's not as big a difference with a 3ph transformer rectifier as an inverter.

DennisCA said:

I've read that actually, done a lot of research on this subject. But I am wondering if those are 1ph transformers units it's being referred to and that takes me to the difference in quality output between a 1 and 3 ph transformer in a welding situation and I ask myself, maybe it's not as big a difference with a 3ph transformer rectifier as an inverter.

Click to expand...

Did you NOT read the attached link ?

It's not so much the smoothness of the D.C., rather how fast the supplies control circuit can keep down any transient spikes.

Guess I misread about that then I thought spikes was about how they could kill inverters easily and something IGBT did better than Mosfet and the issue with transformers was the current not keeping up and dropping.

I did find a HyperTherm Max 100D for sale. But it looks like too big a bastard even for me.