[Raderwood]

I'm new here and wondered if any of you have experience with air torch conversions of Thermal Dynamics PAK 10 plasma cutters? I have a handful of these things acquired over the years... and understand many have converted them to air successfully. I've tried fitting air torches to a couple of them with results varying from sorta OK to awful. Trouble I'm having is extremely short consumable life (electrodes mainly) and very inconsistent pilot arc. Same effect on a couple machines. Tried a Plazcraft/ Powcon PT-100 torch with fair results but very short consumable life - OK pilot arc, an ESAB PT-25 torch which had consumable life of minutes and very inconsistent pilot arc, and a Thermal Dynamics SL 100 "one torch" with adapter kit for the PAK 10- Very inconsistent pilot arc, cut OK with very short standoff but again EATS electrodes pretty quickly, then performance degrades. These setups are being fed squeaky clean, dry air which is working fine with my inverter plasma machine- a Powcon Starcut. Running the PAK 10's with the cover off shows smooth consistent high frequency at spark gaps in the machine- which are set at .015. However the Various torches seem not to like it! They are all being fed the PSI specified for them..... Anyone else tried this? Results??

[Mike]

welcome to the forum.

[Otto Nobedder]

Welcome, Raderwood,

I'm confused about what you mean about "air conversion"... Most plasma cutters are designed to run on air. Dry, clean air is the goal, meaning a good cleaning system ahead of the plasma cutter.

I often cut aluminum and stainless with dry nitrogen, but carbon steel cuts better with air.

Please clarify what you're asking, so we can help you with an answer.

Steve S

[weldin mike 27]

Maybe from inbuilt compressor to connect to air line?

Mick

[noddybrian]

I could be wrong here - but many years ago I worked at a place that had a plasma cutter which I think was either the same or similar to this - it was one of the first seen around here & weighed several hundred pounds - almost needed it's own substation to power it - but more importantly required argon gas to initiate the plasma flame as well as compressed air to cut - the machine had a full size BOC cylinder on the back as well as an airline - because plasma was so new then most people thought it was a welder ! I think there were various attempts to convert these type machines to use just air when the more common air only machines started appearing - is it possible that is what the OP is trying to do here ?

[Raderwood]

Guys, Yes this is an approx. 900 lb. machine originally set up to use nitrogen or argon/hydrogen as the plasma gas and co2 or air as the secondary gas. Very heavy duty, made for many years. 100 amp 100% duty cycle. I think machine was designed before air plasma cutting was perfected but the latest version of the manual I have for it is 2002. As I understand it many of these have been converted to use air torches as it's more economical. Thermal Dynamics has told me many have been converted using the "1 Torch" they offer ( I've tried this with not very good results- it EATS electrodes). Others have offered conversion kits using various other torches.... Trouble seems to be some report the combination is VERY rough on torch consumables and this is the trouble I'm having. Others report it has worked well. The trouble here is not the quality of the air but something that seems hard to track down. What I'm looking for is other people who have converted these to air torches and what experience they have or how they did it successfuly. I.E. did they have to do any tweaks or other mods to the machine to get the combo to work properly. I also started the same thread on Weldingweb forum and am just beginning to hear from people. Any help is greatly appreciated, as I have collected 4 of these machines and several big air torches and would like to get something set and working successfully if it can be done!