Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster A80 reliability and consumable life

[Kj6bab]

I recently purchased my first thermal dynamics plasma cutter, I never sought out a certain brand it was always whatever deal I could find. I recently purchased a cutmaster a80 from offerup for $300 that was advertised as not working, it was cheap enough that I was willing to gamble with trying to fix it and if not I knew I could part it out for what I was into it for. It ended up having a bad pressure regulator and the pressure sensor was clogged with corrosion so I replaced those and then I discovered it had a short in the torch lead about 2 feet from the torch. Luckily I got a second broken torch with it when I bought it as the previous owner crashed and broke the end off of the torch shortly after they purchased their plasma table. I was able to piece together a perfect torch from the two of them and now it is working perfectly.

I just wonder how much life is left in this unit since it was used pretty heavily in a small fabrication business and I am sure it has a million hours of use on it. It is a usa made black and blue model from 2011 which I have heard are better then the newer ones. I was debating on trying to sell it while it is a working unit or just running it until it quits.

I am also curious about consumable life, when I purchased it I got 6 bags of the 9-8232 electrodes amd 6 bags of the 9-8210 60 amp nozzles and 3 start cartridges. I started wondering if the consumable life is so bad you have to stock so many of them. It will probably get 1/10th of the use in my shop then it did in the previous owners shop.

[arnegrant]

We have an A80 and an A120 in our shop.

I figure cutting up one 4'x8' sheet of 1/2 inch plate into 18x plates with 12 holes each (216 holes) takes one nozzle at 80 amps.

Sometimes I run one electrode per two tips, but steel is so expensive if it is wore at all I have been doing 1 electrode per sheet.

This is what I keep for consumables. I order more when a bin starts getting low.

I save the decent used consumables for cutting fix it parts.

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We run the table all day a few days a week.

Things run until they don't.

Torches have more issues than the actual units, in my experience.

[adbuch]

This is all great information from both Kj6bab and arnegrant! We can gain some insight here for how many consumables the real productions shops go thru running these large jobs out there in the "real world". This is a far cry from what some of us hobbyists use with our occasional cutting.
David

[Kj6bab]

I hadn't done any research on Thermal Dynamics plasma cutters before purchased the one I have, the only reason why I ended up with Thermal Dynamics is that it was cheap. I did hear that the quality dropped after production was moved from the United States. I did purchase my A80 as a non working unit, the people I bought it from couldn't afford down time so they immediately replaced it with a Lincoln flexcut 80. I was also wondering if having the solenoid valve in the torch actually made any difference, I can understand the theory behind doing that for faster reaction times. I figured out the torch was the main problem with this plasma cutter when I got it and I don't think the previous owners ever did any maintenance to this unit the entire time they owned it. I do know they replaced the main contactor about a month before I purchased it. The inside of the plasma cutter had probably a 1/2" of grinding and metal dust in the bottom of the unit and It looks like they were fighting air quality and moisture problems constantly. The air system inside was nasty and the internal pressure regulator and pressure switch were full of bits of rust so I replaced them both. When I first got the unit before testing anything I completely disassembled the entire unit and cleaned everything until it was spotless inside. The previous owners only used the 9-8232 electrodes along with the 9-8210 tips so I don't know if they ever ran it higher then 60 amps. I probably have 50 of those electrodes and 50 of those tips. Do the lower amperage tips improve cut quality on thinner materials and is it worth getting all of the different amperage tips, I did buy a bag of 100a tips for cutting some 1" steep plate. Right now I am only running it on 50A single phase circuit but I will be switching it over to 208v 3 phase since I finally bought the correct plug and receptacle. Hopefully this unit still have a good amount of life left in it.

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[adbuch]

That's a nice looking machine. Thermal Dynamics would be my first choice if I needed a new cutter since Hypertherm is no longer producing the non-sync Powermax 85. I've got a smaller TD cutter I've had for over 30 years and have never had any problems with it.
David

[weldguy]

WOW! Are those the before and after pics? If so you are a restoration master

Those are great machines although I preferred the previous generation Cutmasters with the black sheet metal case.

I have no experience with the newer TD air plasma however since Hypertherm is sticking us with the SYNC technology it will be the next one I buy.

I think this is the perfect opportunity for Thermal Dynamics to get marketing and claim back some of the air plasma market share.

[Kj6bab]

I spent 20+ hours completely disassembling it down to a bare chassis and cleaning everything, I think I used 2 gallons of lacquer thinner removing all of the over spray. I bought it from offerup for $300 as a non working unit hoping it was a easy fix. I did end up with a working plasma cutter for under $400 all said and done so the time wasted cleaning it worth it.