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  1. #46
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    I'd certainly gathered that there was a fair bit of latitude in the adjustments.

    With most electric welding too much current resuts in blowing holes....that is hardly a problem in this situation....so what is the consequence of too much current?......not that that will ever be a problem on a small machine like this once we start talking about heavier stock.


    on another matter..it occurs to me that a plasma cutter is an ideal companion to a MIG in many ways.
    above all it leaves a nice clean uncontaminated cut with a small margin of burnt earth either side of the cut ready to weld on.

    cheers
    Any thing with sharp teeth eats meat.
    Most powertools have sharp teeth.
    People are made of meat.
    Abrasives can be just as dangerous as a blade.....and 10 times more painfull.

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  3. #47
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    back on the matter of compressed air and pipes.
    For most of us gal pipe remains the easiest, safest and most convienient material to work with.

    If you don't have the threading gear..or the inclination to use it....gal pipe can be baught in pre-threaded lengths in the big hardwares....then its just a matter of screwing it together with the correct fittings and adaptors.

    most of us could put an air system togeter in a small workshop in an afternoon.

    AND when you move to another place it all comes appart easily and packs convieniently......that is if you didn't use a hard setting sealant......best to use teflon tae or one of the soft setting pipe sealants.

    on the matter of pipe systems as a second reciever........um...not realy......large diemeter pipe is not required for airflow in small workshops and would be an unnecessary expense.

    AND you want to keep water out of your pipes all together.

    Yeh I know it is traditional and recommended in many of the texts to install sloping lines and air outlets that branch upward......but in a small shop its just all too hard and costly.
    No matter what you do, if you allow air carrying moisture into your pipe system it will gather in every low point...that includes every dowanward facing fitting or hose in the system.

    do yaself a big favour a get a second reciever in there some where and have ya filter reg after it....there is simply no substitute for the effectivness and economy.

    This second reciever does not need to be very big.....as I say a meter long section of 4 or 6 inch gal pipe will work pretty well.....longer or bigger is better.

    remember it can be wall mounted...and vertical is good.

    if you cant get a second reciever in near the compressor, it is reasonable to place it near the required dry air.

    one of the things that was common in many of the big workshops was a spraying air filter...this consisted of a big section of upright pipe on legs or even wheels, with an inlet and a drain cock at the bottom and an outlet and a filter reg at the top.

    it was moved arround to anwhere clean dry air was required.....these big shops..that are mostly all gone....had massive air systems and most applications a little water in the air was not considered a problem.

    cheers
    Any thing with sharp teeth eats meat.
    Most powertools have sharp teeth.
    People are made of meat.
    Abrasives can be just as dangerous as a blade.....and 10 times more painfull.

  4. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by soundman View Post
    back on the matter of compressed air and pipes.
    For most of us gal pipe remains the easiest, safest and most convienient material to work with.
    I would contest that.
    To assemble a poly pipe air manifold all one requires is a saw and a pair of pliers large enough to tighten the poly fitting, in fact, hand tight will suffice on 25mm poly. A poly manifold will be quicker by a large margin to set up and assemble too. Leaks are damn near unheard of and frictional losses are less, not that frictional losses are critical in most workshop air installations.
    If you wish to disassemble any component, they all slide apart once the locking nut is removed. No rust issues either and the pipe and fittings are substantially cheaper than medium black or galv pipe into the bargain.
    Pressure rating on the 25mm poly is around 250 Psi, so there is a substantial safety margin.

  5. #49
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karl Robbers View Post
    I would contest that.
    To assemble a poly pipe air manifold all one requires is a saw and a pair of pliers large enough to tighten the poly fitting, in fact, hand tight will suffice on 25mm poly. A poly manifold will be quicker by a large margin to set up and assemble too. Leaks are damn near unheard of and frictional losses are less, not that frictional losses are critical in most workshop air installations.
    If you wish to disassemble any component, they all slide apart once the locking nut is removed. No rust issues either and the pipe and fittings are substantially cheaper than medium black or galv pipe into the bargain.
    Pressure rating on the 25mm poly is around 250 Psi, so there is a substantial safety margin.
    Exactly what sort of pipe are we talking about here Karl.
    Poly pressure pipe is available that goes ranges from about 45 PSI at 100ºC, to 375 PSI at 20ºC - bit of a range there!
    I'd hate for some newbie to run out an by they wrong sort of Poly pipe and fit it to their compressor and believe they will be safe.
    When I looked into reticulated compressed air a few years back the effect of temperature on PPP worried me and this this was one thing that put me off using it.

    BTW Also have you checked the price of galv fittings recently?
    While the pipe was a bit more expensive, most of the fittings I bought for my galv system were less than the price of poly fittings.

    The main reason I went glav was I had my former FIL big box of galv fittings so I ended up buying only a handful of fittings.
    A major cost with my system with 6 outlets was the cost of the BSP adapters and the Nitto fittings.
    The other smaller factor for me was I had put a significant effort into making the metal work end of my shed sort of fire resistant and to the use poly pipe in that area seemed like I was going against that.

    I do agree that poly is far easier to install - cutting all those threads on the galv pipe by hand gave me a fair old work out but maybe that was a good thing

  6. #50
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    I've been thinking about running air around the workshop and was probably going to use standard 25mm metric poly ("blue line") that has a working pressure of 12.5 bar (PN12.5) - around 180 psi. Given the compressor cuts out at about 125psi I'd have thought that'd be enough. However, at 40 degrees, the rating drops to 950kPa or 138psi, which is getting mighty close to the operating pressure.

    Considering that, I'd probably use PN16 pipe (230psi).

  7. #51
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    The high pressure poly pipe usually has a blue stripe down the side and is metric sized... I believe yellow stripe means gas use.. Have also seen green stripe but it was rural grade...

    With the high pressure metric poly fittings, you just push the end in and tighten...
    Light red, the colour of choice for the discerning man.

  8. #52
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    Pn16 would be absolutely perfect.
    All our reticulated air and water underground where ambient temperatures can easily exceed 45 degrees is in poly, usually either 63mm or 110 poly.
    I am aware that you can buy some really cheap galv fittings. The last ones I mucked around with had really poor threads but they may have lifted their game since then.
    I love poly for the fact that it is rust free and essentially leak free.

  9. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by RustyArc View Post
    I've been thinking about running air around the workshop and was probably going to use standard 25mm metric poly ("blue line") that has a working pressure of 12.5 bar (PN12.5) - around 180 psi. Given the compressor cuts out at about 125psi I'd have thought that'd be enough. However, at 40 degrees, the rating drops to 950kPa or 138psi, which is getting mighty close to the operating pressure.

    Considering that, I'd probably use PN16 pipe (230psi).
    I've been looking at something like that for our mens shed.
    What type of fittings are you looking at?

  10. #54
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    I've been looking at something like that for our mens shed.
    What type of fittings are you looking at?
    Probably just standard metric poly fittings from Philmac or Plasson., although I have seen push-fit fittings which look pretty schmick.

    The other pipe I'm considering is pex, as I'm going to run some water around the shed and am planning to do it in pex rather than copper. Haven't decided which pex system to go with though...

  11. #55
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    Thanks for this thread Richard. I've just bought one of those beasties from Deals Direct, (they are close to $300 posted nowadays).

    Like yourself I had heard of plasma cutters but never set eyes on one until I opened the box.

    Oxy cutting with compressed air and electricity! Love it!

  12. #56
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    Dec 2014
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    Adelaide
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    Iv had a hypertherm powermax 45 for about 2 years,
    thought you guy's might be interested
    in this video.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf6LnpCJ52M
    fast forward to 3.16 for cutting action.

  13. #57
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    Oct 2006
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    I have been using a Cut50PII for a while now and I reckon it's a great bit of gear. Have been using it for general cutting and also using it with templates to cut out shapes. The pilot arc is handy for starting when cutting dirty/rusty/painted metal. Also removes very, very little gal when cutting gal steel.


    Cost was around $400 from WeldSmart in WA.
    Cheers.

    Vernon.
    __________________________________________________
    Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy.

  14. #58
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Location
    North Queensland
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    42

    Default Skillmeister DIY Inverter Plasma Cutter on Special

    Just received an email from Deals Direct re various specials and capped shipping rate.
    These Cut-40 plasma cutters are listed at $299 plus capped $5.00 shipping to most areas. I checked my postal code area 4805 (north queensland) and reduced shipping applies, so should to most of Australia.
    I recently bought a similar size machine so won't be getting one of these. I have dealt with DDs quite a bit over some years and no problems that haven't been sorted out satisfactorily. They are only a reseller so have no technical knowledge about anything. If you enquire about info they just quote from the suppliers blurb. It just means you have to do research first. I still buy regularly from them. However as I don't have this plasma cutter (mine & this one are both from China so probably very similar) I can't give any user's feedback. Capped shipping today only. Hope this interests someone.

  15. #59
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    Thanks for the heads-up. With the 10% sign-up discount, it came out to $277 delivered

  16. #60
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    It arrived today and I fired it up. Does what it says, although some of the cuts need a good bit of grinding to get the dross off.

    I'm gonna call it Mr Hissy.

    Turns out, if you have your compressor running & Mr Hissy maxed out on the same circuit, the old 20A breaker won't hold on very long. Might need to find some more circuits...

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