Colassal Tech CUT50F Plasma Cutter w/pilot arc

[TractorGuy]

Got my Colassal Tech CUT50F Plasma Cutter w/pilot arc today.

So far so good. Only made one cut so far and did it on dirty 4x1/4 angle at the bend so it was thicker than 1/4" and dirty. Did I mention it was dirty? Set it at 48 amps and 75 PSI and it blew right threw it. This is a 208/220 only unit that I am running at 248 volts on my Diesel standby generator. I expect it will get better as I get more practice and cut some clean steel with a guide.

Here is a pic of the first cut.

Not too much slag on the under side.

Unit comes with a 7-1/2' power cord and a 12' torch lead. You have to add the plug. The only negatives I've found so far is the hose fitting and gauge did not seem to be standard pipe thread and the fat torch tip and guide won't let you cut close to the wall on a piece of angle. The gauge and hose fitting bottomed out in the regulator and it leaks a little air around the gauge. Of course the gauge bottomed out with the scale upside down but that's no biggie. I think the threads in the regulator are standard because my quick coupler I supplied on the inlet screwed in as it should and sealed fine. I suppose on the angle you could cut from the back side if you want to get closer to the bend.

I paid $309 for the cutter with 6 sets of extra consumables. It was a little higher than some of the other pilot arc units but this seller has 100% rating with NO negatives and says they honor the 1 year warranty in house. Seller has not given me feedback yet so no feedback or plug for them.

Here's a couple of pics of the unit. I forgot to take one of the face but it just has the connections and the amp setting. Pressure is only on the regulator gauge which is all you need. It's a much smaller footprint than most welders so it doesn't take up all the room on the HF welder cart I put it on. It sits low so I put a piece of baseboard trim behind it to give the cord and air hose room to get over the lip of the cart.

 

[yomax4]

Well, At 50 amps you should easily make short work of 1/4 or even 1/2. Check your slag, If it's easy to remove you were going too slow. ( low speed slag ) it it was hard to remove you were going to fast. ( high speed slag ) when cut proper, Very little slag. You'll get there. Dirty makes no difference. If it conducts electricity, it cuts. Including fingers and pierces of the ears. Lastly, it's not all about AMPS it's more about Killowats in and of the arc. Enjoy !!

 

[dragoneggs]

That's a pretty rough cut but for $300 I guess I wouldn't complain.

 

[TractorGuy]

That's a pretty rough cut but for $300 I guess I wouldn't complain.

That was my first ever cut with a plasma cutter. Pretty sure the machine is capable of doing better.

 

[dragoneggs]

That was my first ever cut with a plasma cutter. Pretty sure the machine is capable of doing better.

I'm a relative newbie with plasma too... I watch the flame on the backside if possible to be sure it is perpendicular to cut. That helps you with speed.

 

[Big Barn]

It’s just like welding. Do a quick dry run a couple times to be sure you are in a comfortable position for the entire cut.

 

[TractorGuy]

Thought I would do a follow up since I got a chance to play with this again. One of my projects is to reinforce a standard JD loader bucket. I have a 5' piece of 4"x4"x1/4" angle I wanted to cut part of one leg off of and weld the leftover angle part on top. I am also going to use the flat part I cut off to weld on the sides. Pretty much the same thing the factory does on the heavy duty bucket JD sells as an option. I will finish it up by welding some chain hooks on top.

Anyway I made a few more test cuts and learned some lessons. I learned that slow and steady wins the race. Too fast and you will have slag that is difficult to grind off. Just the right speed and you won't have much and it chips off with a hammer. Too slow and you still have slag that is easy to remove but you may have a ragged cut. I also learned my machine seems to like 60 PSI better than 75. It performs best at full amps while cutting 1/4". Note: At the 50 amp setting it draws 26 amps of current on 240V.

I finally felt comfortable making the 5' long cut. I was afraid it might overheat the cutter but it went through without a problem. I had a couple of stops and starts but I didn't pause long. I pretty much made the whole cut without stopping more than a second or two. I laid a piece of 1/4 round molding in the bend of the angle to rest the torch on. I removed the guide wire that was on the ceramic and drug the cutting tip directly on the metal. It ain't perfect but it's good enough to weld on a bucket. Slag was pretty sparse and chipped off with a hammer.

 

[yomax4]

It's nice to be able to rip a piece of steel. What you have here is kind of what you get without snaping a line and clamping a guide onto the part. Your weld will hide the cut edge so all is well. Nice work !