Plasma Cutter Question

After watching me cut the floor off my parts car with a Sawzall, cutting discs and assorted curses, the wife took pity on me and bought me a Miller 375 X-Treme plasma cutter. It's being drop shipped to my door this week.

I'm new to these things. Which is better, air feed from a bottle or is a compressor just as good? I'll mostly just be cutting sheetmetal for the floors and some body patching. Thanks for any advice and/or a heads up on using the cutter.
RT

 

I've got a smaller Milller unit and have had great success using my compressor. I've never had any issues with the Miller unit. Good luck and have fun!

 

I run my miller on a compresser and it works great. Your plasma should come with a filter from miller. I went ahead and upgraded my water seperator and everythings good. Good luck!

 

I use a compresser with mine. The only problem has been water so I run 3 water traps in line and drain the tank every week. Now it runs great and is a very useful tool.

 

Only reason to use bottled gas with a cutter is if you can't get your compressor's air clean/dry.

Dirty/Wet air will eat up consumables -- filters pay for themselves very quickly.

Enjoy.

I'm jealous

 

Wet air from the compressor will distroy the electrodes and short live the tips. That's why it's very important to run a dryer system. Easy way to check for moisture is use a blow gun spray the air on to a mirror, a couple minutes will tell ya , any fogging or water drops you got a problem ! I have a Miller and a couple water traps and it works great off the compresor!!

 

"the wife took pity on me and bought me a Miller 375 X-Treme plasma cutter. It's being drop shipped to my door this week"

You lucky dog!trade you wives, the only thing dropped off here is bills.

 

that was the first thing that came to my mind, is what a lucky bastard. I use mine with a compressor, i've even carried it out onto jobs and used a little pancake compressor without a dryer on it worked fine, but keep an eye on your tips.

 

Look at a TIP products catelog for a good diagram of how to kep water out, I think someone has posted it here too. Water is your enema.

 

another tip I can offer you to save consumables is to use aerosol type anti-spatter spray. It keeps the debris from the work piece and the tips. I have been able to keep the same pieces in my machine for 6 months plus some times. And yes I use the thing about every other day.