ESAB 650 with torchmate?

[hdljesse]

Has anyone ran an Esab 650 on a torchmate table, I was reccomended hypertherm 45, but the price difference is almost 1200$, we are cutting anything from 1/8 aluminum to 3/16 inch mild steel on a regular basis , we may want to go thicker at some point but for now this is our main needs and wondering if anyone has ran this combo and what the results were, my main concerns is with the local cnc guy we are using we have a lot of clean up after the cuts, meaning some of the cuts are close to 90 degree, some are completely slanted, holes are not correct size, or screwed up with slants and just tears up drill bits, and he is using a hypertherm 45, now i dont know how much of the issue is him , or the machine... any advice?

[I Lean]

No ESAB experience, but I love my Hypertherm 45. If your guy's cuts aren't square or whatever, that's either wrong settings or messed up consumables.

The holes being not quite right size can happen with any air plasma, and the tearing up drill bits is probably due to the hardened edge that also comes from any air plasma.

[Dennie]

I can suggest the HT 45 and in this case you get what you pay for, the HT 45 takes all the guess work out of cutting with plasma you can look in the manual and refer to the cut charts for all of your parameters and you will get your best cut quality.

Cant say that about ESAB, you will have a lot of trial and error to get your best cut quality and will more than likely need to drop a ground rod to eliminate interference from the plasma cutter so it will not knock the Signal Generator off-line.

[cptcrust]

Hypertherm 45 is the way to go! No troubles with mine!

[jimcolt]

These cuts were all done with a Powermax45 on a 4 x 4 PlasmaCam machine. Operated correctly....meaning setting the cut parameters as the Hypertherm manual suggests....will provide excellent cut quality with the Hypertherm system.

1st, 3/8" steel showing edge smoothness. 2nd, 1/4" steel with holes sized 3/16", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4" and 1"...all very round and with minimal top to bottom taper. 3rd, 3/8 inch steel with nice holes. 4th, bracket cut from 1/4" steel, the small holes were cut to .188", drilled to .201" with a cobalt drill, then tapped 1/4"-20. Drilling removes the taper and hardness allowing for a propely tapped hole. 5th, 1/2" steel parts for a log splitter with very nice 1/2" diameter bolt holes. Last, 3/16" aluminum seats for a zipline trolley. All cuts were done at exactly the speed, pierce height, cut height and amperage settings listed in the Hypertherm operators manual.

Jim

[snoeproe]

ESAB makes a very good cutter. Right up there with Hypertherm and TD units.
We have an older 1150 ESAB at work running on 3 phase and it is a very good cutter. Be carefull buying a used older ESAB unit as many of them are high frequency start machines. You want a blowback or pilot start cutter for a cnc table, not a high frequency start cutter.