Saturday 12 May 2012

Hmm plasma

I have a super special secret idea for a CNC plasma cutter but my plasma cutter is a bit of a wimp, an ancient Hypertherm 380 which can only cut 3mm max properly. Looking at better machines today made me realise why I have such a wimpy machine. A Hypertherm Powermax45, which is the daddy, and will cut 12mm steel is a whopping £1756 inc VAT. So I had a look on Ebay, you know, just in case, and found one available that was not working, some disk shape part had blown and the supplier would only offer to change the board out for £500.  Well as the guy said he had it for sale elsewhere I gave him a call and we negotiated a price. Given the torch itself is a £350 spare I could not expect to pay peanuts but I think it was fair. I'll divulge the amount when (if?) I get it working! I could not resist going to pick it up straight away so had an enjoyable drive to Richmond in London where I met him at the edge of the Thames in the pitch black. This is not as bad as it sounds as he lives in the middle of the river on a boat, a very nice chap he was too!

So here it is:


Its actually smaller than my old one and possibly lighter, that's progress for you! And here is at least one of the reasons it is not working:


The supplier would not even look at replacing the parts on the board which is a shame because I put this into Google and found out immediately that it is a 10ohm circuit protection thermistor by Ametherm. I just ordered a couple from Farnell for around £3.50 each. If this is all that is wrong then I will be a very happy bunny indeed but we shall see, maybe tomorrow, bum it's Saturday tomorrow :(

No comments:

Post a Comment