Thanks Jake,

I should not cheap on such a tool.

Thanks for your advice. I know it's a small plasma but the specs of the 375 Xtreme from Miller are 3/8" rated, 1/2" quality and 5/8" sever. Since I mainly work with 1/8" mild steel or black steel, I think it will do the job, don't you think?

If you take a look at the yak gallerie, I'm working on a big Dragon and this will give you an idea of the thikness I'm working with.

Anyway thanks again.

Gillis

I bought an LTech almost twenty years ago....it was around $1,800.- then. It paid for itself the first commission. it will cut up to 1/2" slowly but it's lasted all this time with only a few minor repairs. It's a work horse.
Hidden expenses are the electrodes which burn out...nozzles, tips. I don't know if the Miller plasma cutters have replacable electrodes????
Good luck...it's a fun tool and you will do alot with it. Janet R.

good advice. i also have a hypertherm. works wonderfully.

another tip for dry air -- run the air through a lot of black iron pipe before it reaches the filters and traps. in other words -- put the compressor as far away as possible from the outlet so the air has time to shed the water.

keith

Hi Keith, how long a pipe should I use so the air as time to shed the water. WOuld a 6 feet pipe make any difference?

gillis

Several sections of pipe are needed. The first section should extend verticaly from the compressor as high as practical, then any pipe needed to convey air to remote locations should be pitched so as to rise away from the compressor, allowing condensed water to drip back towards the tank. Finaly, anywhere an outlet is required, a tee should be employed, with a drip leg down, with a drain valve at the bottom, and a verticle riser, with air outlet attached. The point is to cause the air to flow uphill, away from the water flowing downhill. John Christiansen

good day, gillis..

go to: http://www.tptools.com/lp2/Tech_Notes.html

tp tools has a .pdf for download that shows exactly how to install the piping. it suggests 75 feet, but that is a lot of pipe and my shop -- for one -- isn't nearly big enough for that. so i would go with the longest length possible; put your compressor in one end of the shop and the cutter in the other.

keith

Gillis,

What I did for my air hammer was to obtain a second receiver tank of 60 gallons and put it right next to the hammer. There is a 60 gallon tank on the compressor itself, then thirty feet or so of piping to the secondary receiver, then four feet of pipe to the hammer. I get no moisture in the moisture trap at the hammer, and that is in a very humid tropical climate.

The secondary receiver acts to slow the velocity of the air coming down the line to the point of use, allowing moisture time to condense and drop out. One problem with high-volume items is that the air has no time to cool and lose moisture before it gets to the point of use. If you have lots of pipe you can get around this, but it will take eighty or a hundred feet of pipe, I would guess. Less if the pipe is copper, which conducts heat much more rapidly than steel. You can put a coil of copper tubing in the line before your plasma cutter, but be sure to provide a collection/drain point for the accumulated water.

You do have a coalescing water filter at the cutter, right? If not, get a good one like a Norgren or Parker. Mount it right at the cutter, not on the compressor. The air coming out of the compressor is too hot for the filter to work at its optimum, but down the line a ways the air has cooled and the filter will work great. You can also get the type of filter that uses an element like a roll of toilet paper or an oil filter core. These are recommended for industrial plasma cutters, and they definitely outperform the coalescing type, but at an increased cost. They also have to be serviced regularly.