[matttargett4]

Hi all,

I built my own table a year or so ago now with a powermax 900 and im really pleased with it, however like all things you make they could always be improved, ive recently been offered a 1992 HT2000 and am considering a remodel to include it, my question is firstly doesanyone have an opinion on the value of the ht2000?? Also i know it will cut thicker and faster than the 900 and give better consmable life but is a machine of this age any good?? Im aware i will need to try to make my gantry better, stiffer etc but i want to do that anyway .

Im not sure what im asking really, just for some opinions on wat im considering i guess pros and cons, as for what i cut, its allsorts of stuff from 0.5mm through to 19mm which i have to do with oxy at the moment, not huge amounts but if i had a better machine there would be the oppurtunity to do more. What do you all think??

Matt

[Med-Pac]

Sounds like a good upgrade. Jim Colt would probably be your best bet on assessing the value. I believe he's a rep for hypertherm. He's somewhere on this site.

Mike

[Gillyshank]

Hi Mate

As times is 'ard at the moment you could probably pick one up for £500 -£1000. Original price would have been £10 -15 k depending on lead length and spec.

Is the unit "as is" or a refurb. At that age I would imagine it will be feeling a bit tired. Check that the contactors and pilot arc relay has been replaced at least within the last few years, condition of torch / leads etc.

Also it will theorectically give better consumable life - but take into account cost of purchase of the consumables.

on the whole these units are pretty reliable, but alot depends on how it has been looked after.

it is a bit like buying a second hand car - you pay your money - you take your chance.

[Alan Bradford]

Hi,
The HT-2000 is a workhorse machine. I have installed a few hundred of them over the years.
A 1992 machine would be one of the first production units built. They had few problems. You can still get parts for them, (The last one I repaired was this afternoon)
Look at the main contactor and pilot arc relays for worn out contacts. If so they need to be replaced before they damage the internal Chopper Modules or the torch.
The other problem is the quality of the hoses. Any gas leaks will degrade the LongLife properties of the torch.
The other thing to concider is the HT-2000 requires 3 Phase power. It will not run on single phase. Depending on the model number it will run on 208-575 Volts. At 480 Volts it uses 32 amps and at 208 it uses 100+ Amps.

As for the value, there are lots of HT-2000's around due to the HPR-260 introduction.You may find one for $2k-$4k ($USD).
We sell them for around $10kUS with all new cables, hoses and torch.
In my opinion reusing the old hoses and cables is a problem waiting to happen.
When they start to flex in diffrent positions they usually fail in a short time.

I hope this helps.
Good luck with your decision.