Posted by Alex J [205.129.10.198] on Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 14:33:48 :
In Reply to: Re: To answer Mark's question posted by Kevin in Ohio [192.182.165.194] on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 11:58:16 :
I used an Airforce 700i INVERTER machine for 8 years attached to a CNC table gantry and it never gave me a bit of problems. Smooth running machine but was hard on consumables from the get go, but thats what you get running a 40 amp machine on 1/4" material at and beyond its duty cycle for hours on end.
I've stepped to a Hypertherm machine now and it has a lot more power behind it being an 80 amp rated machine. The duty cycle is deeper and the consumables last twice as long. I went with the Hypertherm because it is American Made and they have a reputation of being a reliable source. I ended up with mine cheaply because the previous owner didn't have a use for it beyond the original salvage project he bought it to use on. The torch retro-fit stuff is dissapointing, there is no doubt there. It saddened me to see them do that, however quite a bit of the consumables did convey through the transition, so if you had a case of consumables, they weren't all scrap.
The photo shows the cut quality of the Hypertherm on some 1/4" HRPO mild steel that I made a suspension bracket with.
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