Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone,

I am going to purchase a plasma cutter next week. I am a hobbyist at best and will not be using it hard.

My cutting needs are 80% 3/8" mildsteel and AR500, 10% thiner stock and 10% up to 3/4". Anything over 3/4" I have a oxy/act setup. While intially this will be a hand torch and me using patterns I would like to keep the options open to transferring it to a CNC setup down the road. I understand the cpacities drop off when considering plasma due to piercing.

I have narrowed it down to:

Lotos LTP5500
and the
Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 51 (or 81)

Any pro cons you care to share? each distributor I have talked to claims they are the best becuase they are the industry standard and only make plasma cutters. I figured I would go to the industry and ask for myself.


Help me choose, please

Out of the 3 machines given, the Cutmaster 81 is the one to go with for sure. cheap Chinese machines don't cut the same speed as an inequivalent amp domestic machine does so cut amps only means so much, however, with 80% of your cutting going to be all 3/8 and you'd like to be able to cut up to 3/4 on occasion, You'll definitely want a heavier machine than the cutmaster 51.

My reasoning is like this: It doesn't matter how often you want to cut 3/4". If you want to cut it cleanly, then anytime you need to do so, you need lots of amps.

It's like wanting an 8 second drag car, but only racing it every 5 years. That doesn't make it any cheaper. To make it an 8 second car, it will cost $$$ regardless.

Oscar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:26 pm My reasoning is like this: It doesn't matter how often you want to cut 3/4". If you want to cut it cleanly, then anytime you need to do so, you need lots of amps.

It's like wanting an 8 second drag car, but only racing it every 5 years. That doesn't make it any cheaper. To make it an 8 second car, it will cost $$$ regardless.

Kind of my thought process too, I'd figured perhaps he meant sever cut, but yes, for a clean cut, let alone a clean cut that doesn't require building a robot capable of moving at a perfect 2.5 IPM. You just won't be able to do it with the other two options.

Also I figured if you already know you're going to be cutting 80% 3/8 in particular that tells me you expect to be using it on a daily basis/time is money type situation, and are likely looking for a cleaner and or faster cut over the oxy/acetylene torch you already have. So what it sounds like you need is something that'll slice through 3/8 all day long and occasionally make clean cuts on 3/4 on the semi rare occasion. Either way, I think you're definitely much better served by the Cutmaster 81

I don't have any experience with the Lotus but have used the Cutmaster 51 and it's a good machine that will cut clean up to 1/2" and sever up to 1" I ended up buying Hypertherm's 45XP because it was mad in the USA and employee owned. After I bought it I learned about their hi access attachments and as happy as I was with it originally I'm even more pleased with it now. It's in the same range cutting as the 51 but will cost a code hundred more. We'll worth it in my opinion.