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Does this old Plasma have any value?

swatkins

Titanium
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Location
Navasota / Whitehall Texas
I have been trouble shooting a Smith Equipment 45 amp Plasma Cutter over on this thread. There are a couple of videos of the machine there. Videos start with this post.

I have confirmed that it is working properly and I have a good supply of consumables for the machine. It has a Contact Start that works a little different in you have to press the tip of the torch into the metal to start the torch instead of dragging the tip.

Today I spoke with George's Plasma and George told me many things about the machine.

1. Smith Equipment was bought out by Miller and is no longer supported.

2. You can not buy consumables for the torch and if you need more the torch could be changed, probably to a PT-60. It might or might not be a easy change, but it could be done. PT-60 torches and consumables are cheap on Ebay.

3. This machine could never realistically be used on a CNC table.

4. The consumables I have are for 30 amp use. You might be able to enlarge the nozzle hole to 1.2mm for 45 amp use.

My question is does this machine have any value at all? 200.00 ? 100.00 ? Nada ?

The only reason I am buying another machine is for CNC use and can buy a machine already set up for CNC use, with a 3 year shipping included warranty, recommended by George, for under 1000.00.

In the commercial world it's not worth the gas to drive it to the recyclers.
 
Gee....didn't I suggest putting a pt-60 on it ?

Buy one, and change it over, get the one with the leads already attached.

Keep it for hand usage.

To me it's worth $200
 
You will probably want a hand held plasma to cut the skeletons on the cnc table.
 
Gee....didn't I suggest putting a pt-60 on it ?

Buy one, and change it over, get the one with the leads already attached.

Keep it for hand usage.

To me it's worth $200

Yes, you did :)

George talked me out of that option saying it was foolish to spend any money at all on the machine if I could avoid it. His point being that the machine was so old that components on the Motherboard, mainly caps, were old and prone to failure. George said I could run it till it died or I ran out of consumables but with the 0.8 nozzles it's limited to 30 amps and thin material.

George pointed me to a machine that he consulted on and is a repair center for. The 60 amp machine is already set up for cnc, has a 3 year warranty, Non-Touch Pilot Arc, already uses the PT-60 torches and is delivered to my door for 650 bucks...

Personally I have enough old machines that need attention and I'm past worrying about a machine starting, or failing, when I need it...
 
You will probably want a hand held plasma to cut the skeletons on the cnc table.

That is a good Idea... I'm trying to free up space in my shop and the machine could live in a perminate location above or below the table.. Space is getting tight and is the main reason I haven't put together my table, Not everyone has a shop like yours. I'm still envious :)

Cutting skeletons would put the machine in a non critical usage role that would not piss me off if it failed...
 
Yes, you did :)

George talked me out of that option saying it was foolish to spend any money at all on the machine if I could avoid it. His point being that the machine was so old that components on the Motherboard, mainly caps, were old and prone to failure. George said I could run it till it died or I ran out of consumables but with the 0.8 nozzles it's limited to 30 amps and thin material.

George pointed me to a machine that he consulted on and is a repair center for. The 60 amp machine is already set up for cnc, has a 3 year warranty, Non-Touch Pilot Arc, already uses the PT-60 torches and is delivered to my door for 650 bucks...

Personally I have enough old machines that need attention and I'm past worrying about a machine starting, or failing, when I need it...

Ole George....found him on another forum hocking his wares.
He posted about how bad the Chinese copy torches are (the pt-60) as he claims he sells only genoowine Italian OEM. ($350 vs $85)

I asked him to describe why, and what problems has he seen with the copies.

No answer.

Ignore George, spend $85 and move to the pt-60.

He has ulterior motives, that is to sell you one of his (Chinese made inverters)

ironic aint it ?
 
I obviously don't know George but he was kind enough to talk to me for 30 minutes...

In this case he does not sell the machine he referred me to so I don't know what he has to gain...

But again.. What the hell do I know :)
 
George watched the vids and sent me an email telling me that the machine could not use a PT-60 .

Because of the type of start it would need some type of oddball board to keep the arc going..





Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
Thought I would update this thread. Been a hectic two months and finally found some time.

I've decided to keep the machine around and uses it for off hand cutting. Once I get my table up and running I might mount it under the table and use it for cutting skeletons as gbent suggest.

I did get the wire guide in but I've not had time to test it out. As you can see from the cutting in this video I sure need all the help I can get :D

 
Figured it was about time to try out the new guide, it really is going to increase the consumable life...

The guide keeps the tip off of the metal a little higher than I expected and may be the reason I have a larger kerf in my cuts. It's not bad and someday I might try lowering the height somehow, probably heating and rebending the wire. Until it starts to bother me I'm leaving well enough alone :)



I am wondering if I could modify the tip to allow me to use higher power. With the size I have now 35 amps is the highest amperage I should use.

Is the only difference in these tips the orifice size? Could I just try enlarging the orifice?
 








 
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