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On the Weldingweb forum I did the comparison between the Hypertherm 30 and Everlast Multifunction PU 205 plasma cuts. This came about after I made the claim that my new Everlast 205 made cuts that were just as smooth as my friend Murray's expensive Hypertherm, except the Everlast will cut 3/4" cleanly wheras the Hypertherm will only do 3/8". Several people took issue with my statement (naturally) so Murray and I did cuts with the two machines, then I posted the photos. I let those who took issue with my statement try to figure out which machine made which cut.
They guessed, but got it wrong since the cuts were all very similar in quality.
Someone complained that I made the cuts by hand and that they should have been made on a plasma table.
I don't have a plasma table and this unit is not designed for plasma table use. (duty cycle)
The comment did get me thinking about trying a cut with perfect feed so that I could see what the machine is ultimately capable of in terms of smoothness of cut.
Here is a cut made by the little Everlast using my milling machine table as a feed unit.
I clamped a piece of 1/4" flat bar to the mill table and temporarily rigged a fixed support for the plasma torch over top the flat bar. I then fired up the torch and used the mill table feed to move the bar under the torch. The feed was perfectly even and I think you will agree that the cuts are super smooth.
Cutting done at 25 amps, 65 psi, 3.7 inches per minute. Faster feed (up to 12 inches per minute) produces cuts that are almost as nice as this, but not quite.