[Jonesy_SA]

Hi all,
I am looking to build a space frame chassis. Long story short these is a great deal of flat sheet that needs to be cut and the steel shops charge an arm and a leg for plasma cutting. I did google search for diy plasma cutter and the obviouse answer is build a cnc machine to house a plasma torch. I dont want to spend a fortune and was wondering what these machines are like:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CT-520-TIG-MMA...d=p3286.c0.m14
They are very cheap and claim to cut 12mm steel as well as TIG. I dont know anything about Tig welding or plasma cutters for that matteer, so are these anygood? If not, what is the best priced good machines on the market. Preferably avaible cheap in Australia.
thanks
jonesy

[plain ol Bill]

Just like my ol Dad told me 422,482 times "You get exactly what you pay for." Something you are going to use once or twice and throw away go for it - something you want to use and keep buy the quality. I've regretted cheap crap a lot and have never regretted a good tool.

[Jonesy_SA]

This is true with everthing, i quess my question is, how good is it for the price. I have used a few of these china made mig welders that are only a few hundread and found them to be quite good. Not industry standard so constand use all day everyday will wear them out, but for the occassional user they are execellent.
I know nothing about Plasma cutters but was told they are simple machines inside and not very complicated.
What sort of cutting could i expect with this? would it do slag free or could it be used on a water bath or do you need a different plasma cutter to do this?
How well should it cut in theory, and has anyone ever used one?
As far as TIG goes it doesnt have all the settings the better machines have which im told is a nesicity for good tiging.
Has anyone got any reccomendations for a good well priced plasma cutter, tig and mig machines? If mig i wouldnt be welding more than 15mm at most!!! and mainly thing tubeing for chassis.
thanks

[KyleH2]

There are a bunch of threads on this right now. Unfortunately the forums have so many sections no one gets to all the threads. Search function is your friend.

[Jonesy_SA]

i did do a seearch but only found lots of threads about cheap and goog cnc machines and construction. I know someone would have had to discuss these cheap machines but cant find a thread, if anyone else does please post it, ive done a few searches under diferent topics and came up empty.
EDIT: Ok- just found some under a search for plasma and china, and they are very similar to this thread. moderators feel free to delete this thred and could someone pm me and tell me how to make the oldest post appear at the top of the page. At the moment the newest posts appear at the top and its driving me nuts. I couldnt find a setting in CP to make all threads appear first to last.
thanks

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http://www.cnczone.com/forums/genera...84828-cnc.html

hope this link will help people using cheap plasma cutters