Thermal Dynamics CutMaster 70 plasma cutter?

[SteveU]

Was wondering what opinion people had of this machine. Listed as 25-80 amp with a 40% duty cycle at 80 amps and 1" cut capacity for $1558. Thing I don't understand is why the dual voltage cutskill C-20A which has a 3/8" capacity is more money, seems like the 80 amp machine with greater capacity would be more. What all are people using plasma cutters for besides rough cutting like you could do with a OA Torch & are they better at this than the torch?

Thanks,
Steve

 

[383astro]

I have a cutmaster 51 and it rips through 1/4 with hardly any slag. Barely have to hit the edges with a grinder. I have used mine for many things including chopping the top on a 30 Ford Sedan, cutting the top off of a 50 Chevy truck to put it on a different body, cut out floor pans and trunk from a 71 camaro, cut treadplate for a trailer floor, cut brackets for a custom 4-link, made 5 sets of LS1 engine mounts, made brackets to put 9 inch in my TA, etc, etc

and fixing to start a new project. plan on building me a custom toolbox in about 3 months or so

That Cutmaster 70 is awesome but is overkill unless you need the duty cycle.

unless you need to cut 1" thick steel

 

[Egghaus]

I can't speak for the bigger machines, but I have the little TD 'Drag Gun' for doing sheetmetal and some thicker stuff and it works great. Zips thru sheetmetal with no slag, it will cut thicker stuff but it does make some slag on those. At my high school they have a cutmaster 3/8 that would go thru plate steel no problem.

 

[PAToyota]

What all are people using plasma cutters for besides rough cutting like you could do with a OA Torch & are they better at this than the torch?

I've seen some people do some mighty fine cutting with an OA torch. Much better than I was ever led to believe you could get out of an OA.

I have a Hypertherm Powermax1100 (predecessor to the current 1250 model) upgraded to an RT80 torch. Being able to cut over an inch is a bit overkill, but I bought it used and the price was definitely right.

The RT80 has the option (as do the G3 torches of the newer models) of using the FineCut consumables which allow a very clean cut on thinner materials.

I certainly wouldn't categorize plasma as a "rough cutting" tool.

 

[engnerdan]

I have a Hypertherm PowerMax 30, 30 amp machine, it is rated at 3/8 steel and will make its way through 1/2 - 5/8 very slowly. I love this machine, I use it for beveling, gouging (even thought it is not rated for it, it still works) cutting. The cut is so clean and percise and with a guide is is almost perfect. I cut some brackets out of 4140 for a friend recently, and it was so much faster then sawing, and much cleaner and more percise then torching them.

That machine is a big one thats for sure.

-Dan

 

[SteveU]

Probably won't ever need a 1"+ capacity but if it is the same or lower price than a machine rated for less capacity my thinking is why not? I didn't mean to imply that a plasma cuts rough, just that I have seen some of the severance cuts made with a torch that weren't pretty & thought a plasma would do the same thing only neater. Buddy is restoring a WWII jeep, would never run up against the duty cycle on this machine doing mainly sheet metal work & if needed the extra capacity is there. Just seemed funny to me that a 20 amp dual voltage machine was 500.00 more & wanted to make sure this wasn't a lower quality machine that would give out the first time it was used.

 

[PAToyota]

I tried to research a bit more to give you an answer to your original question about the two models and I'm a bit unclear. The only CutSkill I could find was Victor's OA torch setups. I found a retailer selling a CutSkill plasma, but the CutSkill was in the title and CutMaster was in the description.

One thing that could possibly raise the price would be the dual voltage setup. Another thing would possibly be if it had a higher duty rating. Without specifications for each, it is hard to say.

 

[Skyline]

I am not familiar with this machine, but if the dual voltage option is the only voltage control, I would pass. I would look for a machine that has continuously variable voltage (really amperage) control. Just like a welder, you want to use lower power for thinner metals. I also run mine off a 30a dryer outlet, so the ability to dial it down a little is crucial. Since the thickest steel I work with is 1/4", that's fine.

Btw, there are some nice plasma cutter deals on eBay. I bought my Esab, which was a previous model (but still new in the box) for $850. It will clean cut 7/8", so that's plenty for me, and has variable output.

 

[PAToyota]

I took "dual voltage" to mean that it would run on 110V or 220V - not the output control, which would be amperage and not voltage.

 

[Skyline]

I took "dual voltage" to mean that it would run on 110V or 220V - not the output control, which would be amperage and not voltage.

Oh. That would certainly be nice. But there are quite a number of plasma cutters available where there is no control of output amperage...or simply a Hi-Lo switch. For example this "Dual Power" Snap-on unit:

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...&group_ID=1743&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

As for me, I like to have continuously variable.

 

[PAToyota]

Again, that is amperage. Control of voltage is input voltage - like this Miller:
http://millerwelds.com/products/plasma/spectrum_375_x-treme/

 

[SteveU]

I tried to research a bit more to give you an answer to your original question about the two models and I'm a bit unclear. The only CutSkill I could find was Victor's OA torch setups. I found a retailer selling a CutSkill plasma, but the CutSkill was in the title and CutMaster was in the description.

One thing that could possibly raise the price would be the dual voltage setup. Another thing would possibly be if it had a higher duty rating. Without specifications for each, it is hard to say.

This is the Cutskill C-20A THD 11625 which has a dual input voltage of 115/230V. Duty cycle in the toolwarehouse.net catalog for this model is 30% @ 20 amps for 2028.

The other was a THD 116701 straight 230V input voltage with 40% duty cycle @ 80 amps for 1558. I don't see this model listed on their website but a search on the THD # comes up with a cutmaster 82. Not a big hurry to get this, was looking at maybe in the next year or so, just trying to figure out if this is a good deal.

 

[Vicegrip]

Don't forget that plasma will cut all conductive metals and gas will only cut ferrous metals.