I do not own any of the brands you mention- instead, I have the smallest model made by a bigger industrial manufacturer, C&G.
http://www.thermadyne.com/cgsystems/
Mine is an Aviator, which is their most basic model.
It is substantially better built and more heavy duty than any of the newer small models you are looking at.
I bought it new in 92, and have had virtually no problems with it- a couple of times I had to replace a capacitor on the output board- but aside from that, zilch.
Things to consider-
How heavy of material will you be cutting?
All of these "home" units are built extremely light duty- this is ok if you are cutting a 2 foot square piece of 16 gage, but if you need to cut 4x8 sheets of 1/4" plate, you will need to forklift the material onto the machine, at which point a flimsy frame built from 16 gage square tubing becomes an issue.
You MUST have auto torch height. The metal you are cutting will warp and rise up while you are cutting it- if your machine cannot respond by raising and lowering the torch automatically, you will ruin parts, and must babysit every cut.
If you do much cutting, you will probably want to build a water table to cut on. Most of these erector set machines dont really account for that. Cutting a half inch or so above water cuts down on grit, slag, smoke and sparks by a huge amount. Cutting actually just below the water virtually eliminates these. Plasma cutters make a BIG mess, and its no fun.
Look for a machine that will take a dedicated machine torch, as opposed to just hose clamping on your hand cutting torch. A machine torch will last a lot longer, and not melt, like the plastic hand torches. It will also have a nice rack on it for torch height adjustment. Machine cutting means the machine is on for many minutes at a time, things get hotter and its a much tougher environment, which wears out hand torches quick.
Of the ones you are looking at, the plasma cam seems the most mickey mouse, with parts made from bent sheet metal. Samson is made by the same guys, with similar lack of real info on the website- lots of pretty pictures of bad western art, very little hard facts about the machine- but it also is light duty, with the hose clamp hand torch setup.
Torchmate seems more well built and flexible.
No experience with the actual machines, though- check over on CNCzone.com for stories of actual use.
I cut big stuff, and have done a lot of it over the years, and I know these little machines would not hold up to my usage- but they might be just fine for you.
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I do not own any of the
I do not own any of the brands you mention- instead, I have the smallest model made by a bigger industrial manufacturer, C&G.
http://www.thermadyne.com/cgsystems/
Mine is an Aviator, which is their most basic model.
It is substantially better built and more heavy duty than any of the newer small models you are looking at.
I bought it new in 92, and have had virtually no problems with it- a couple of times I had to replace a capacitor on the output board- but aside from that, zilch.
Things to consider-
How heavy of material will you be cutting?
All of these "home" units are built extremely light duty- this is ok if you are cutting a 2 foot square piece of 16 gage, but if you need to cut 4x8 sheets of 1/4" plate, you will need to forklift the material onto the machine, at which point a flimsy frame built from 16 gage square tubing becomes an issue.
You MUST have auto torch height. The metal you are cutting will warp and rise up while you are cutting it- if your machine cannot respond by raising and lowering the torch automatically, you will ruin parts, and must babysit every cut.
If you do much cutting, you will probably want to build a water table to cut on. Most of these erector set machines dont really account for that. Cutting a half inch or so above water cuts down on grit, slag, smoke and sparks by a huge amount. Cutting actually just below the water virtually eliminates these. Plasma cutters make a BIG mess, and its no fun.
Look for a machine that will take a dedicated machine torch, as opposed to just hose clamping on your hand cutting torch. A machine torch will last a lot longer, and not melt, like the plastic hand torches. It will also have a nice rack on it for torch height adjustment. Machine cutting means the machine is on for many minutes at a time, things get hotter and its a much tougher environment, which wears out hand torches quick.
Of the ones you are looking at, the plasma cam seems the most mickey mouse, with parts made from bent sheet metal. Samson is made by the same guys, with similar lack of real info on the website- lots of pretty pictures of bad western art, very little hard facts about the machine- but it also is light duty, with the hose clamp hand torch setup.
Torchmate seems more well built and flexible.
No experience with the actual machines, though- check over on CNCzone.com for stories of actual use.
I cut big stuff, and have done a lot of it over the years, and I know these little machines would not hold up to my usage- but they might be just fine for you.