Also been looking
From what I have gathered..mostly by reading up what I can online
Shop River on eBay have good support, parts seem to be availiable if things go wrong, and they are not silly expensive for replacement boards
The dual voltage ones can suffer issues, so if your only going to use 240v no need for a dual voltage one
The cheaper ones seem to be contact only start arc, so if you are planning on cutting where you may not be able to ensure a contact with the tip you
will need one with non contact start
HF start can cause RF interference (may or may not be an issue - I know my TIG freaks the radio out in the garage and makes it "crash"
requiring me to unplug it for a few seconds to make it play music again)
It would certainly rule out ever using it near a computer or having any hopes of CNC ing it
There was an Italian company (MigTig)on eBay starting them at 99p (for a 40 amp unit, so circa 10mm cut on ferrous), they seemed to end up at around
£100 and he was selling one per day on UK eBay
He pulled them all off his listings a couple of days ago (typical as I had been missing out on them consistantly by pence and was determined to win
one before weekend arrived!) and left the more expensive 50 amp machines on there (£200 start price)
I have messaged him and basically the 40 amp ones were all pre-order and they had filled all slots from what I can gather by his reply
Maybe he will relist them once this batch has gone out and is settled....??
I only want a 40 amp unit as I will not be using plasma for anything above 10mm (and restricted to single phase13 amp socket)
Contact arc only is fine by me
Duty cycles seemed to be fine for the use I would give it as I'm sure there would be plenty of headscratching/putting out fires/visiting A&E
between cuts
Seems £200 to £250 is the going rate for an import 40 amp , contact arc only item with support
or £100 if you are willing to take the gamble on support/spares/replacement parts,assuming he lists more
Of course you could spend a lot more and buy with complete confidence of local support
It's highly likely that if I do end up getting one it will get used for a few days, I'll hurt myself/get bored cutting stuff up/set fire
to somthing I didn't want to ....so I'm only up for inexpensive ones with cheap consumibles
Regards
Rob
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