Spectrum 2050, would you buy?

[mustange70]

Been looking for a plasma, came across a spectrum 2050 that needs some repair, guy says it need a mothherboard of some sorts, also needs a torch. Machine is from a shop that I have experience with, and they were generally pretty good with their equipment.

They are asking $100 for it. Been looking around and I can get a torch for about ~150$. Local shop wants $900 to repair it. I figure I may try the repairs myself if i go with it.

Question to everyone here, would you take a chance on it at this cost? I know I can talk the guy down a few more dollars, and I'm going to stop by and take a look as they have other stuff (took over a shop and are selling the surplus off).

 

[gungatim]

are you sure you can source the board? if not, it may be cost prohibitive to fix.

example: I got a Bear 80-200 tire balancer machine that had some corrosion on the board. figured the same as you, for $100 would be worth fixing. turns out the board is NLA, and they wanted $600 to send the board in to be tested and fixed...it's in the scrap pile now...

you could get lucky and find a component you can replace, but I would probably pass unless you are SURE you can get the parts...

 

[sberry]

This is probably not a diy repair, if it was they would have sun it. The boards are not like old ones, they have logic chips on them and no way to figure out whats wrong with it. I got
Edisons nephew works for me says its a real problem, we got a couple cant have anything done to them and not going to spend a grand on a machine be worth 800 if it works.
We fixed a board on my synchro, I bought it this way with manuals for 100$ , someone was already fishing for the problem and couldn't find it. We repaired the board but the 2050 is a different animal.

 

[CGT80]

I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

I bought a 375 extreme for a few hundred bucks and figured it needed a new head for the torch. That was over 200 bucks and it still didn't work. Luckily it was still under warranty, otherwise the cost of the new board and fan would have been as much as a new machine. It worked out good in the end, but could have easily been a loss. Now I am considering a Hypertherm 65, which has a better reputation for quality cutting than Miller Plasma machines.