How I Made My Own Plasma Cutter From Junk

By Joe Eichholz

Table of Contents

How I began Making My Plasma Cutter

Page 1
When I started assembling my cutter, I began with taking a good look at my parts. As shown in Section 5 and Section 6, my parts are laid out so I can begin checking off from my parts list. Once this was accomplished, I would study each the parts pictorial to get familiar with each part/component and they would be placed. The next step was to study my schematic and create a layout diagram. My board layout diagram is the most valuable piece in the building, repairing, and modifying process of my cutter. As I began mounting my parts, I organized my board into four sections. Those sections are Power Control, High Current DC, Low Voltage DC and High Voltage Arc Start. Power Control 3KVA step down transformer and contactor. The transformer is mounted off board because it is big and heavy, as you can see in Section 13. The contactor became my first part on the board. I wired it so when the head trigger is pressed, it turns the contactor on and allows my DC components to come on line. Then I began with my next system, High Current DC. High Current DC Bridge Rectifier Large Capacitors Reed Switch (which I used as a current sensor), what it does is allow the high voltage arc system to fire and as soon as high current starts to travel to the head and cutting starts it shuts down the high voltage arc system while cutting since its not needed at this point. If you lose your fire it restarts the arc and gets you going again automatically. My next system was placed on board. Low Voltage DC The low voltage DC components are mixed with power switch and 120 volt terminals. Power Switch 120-volt terminal blocks 12 volt transformer Low voltage bridge rectifier Auto relays Terminal strip, 4 position is all I needed but 5 position was what I had in my toy box. High Voltage Arc Start Microwave capacitor or run capacitor, a household dimmer switch rated for 15 amps. A Ford or Chevy ignition coil. I used the Chevy on this cutter. As you can see, I have terminals to all parts that get an external connection outside of their system so all I have to do is run a piece of wire in-between. Now look at the pictorial of board mounted parts in Section 11. It shows all the wires on the board, but here you can see all terminals and parts mounted, as I wanted. When wiring all my components, I used my Chevy board layout diagram to run my wires.

How I began Page 2

I checked and re checked all wires before mounting external parts. If you go to the final wiring section, you will also find pictures of my rigging of these parts. I could have done it many different ways, but this is what I chose at this time. It took me about 3 hours of procrastination to finally assemble it all. You know how it is on a project, once you are ready with all your parts, your mind starts giving you a million ways of doing something. And, at last you just pick a way and go with it. Once I got it all together, I connected my air tank hose and put the pressure setting at 28 for a safe point to start. I fired it up and BAM - that baby didnt need any more adjusting. It was cutting! You can imagine all the relief and pride I felt when the Plasanator started kicking ass. Yea, I said it Kicking Ass Baby. Oops Wife just told me I need to stop, hee hee and for all you creators ah ah ah ahhhhhh. I hope you enjoyed riding along with me in my journey. Take care and be safe. The Plasmaman

Introduction

Parts Pictorial

Chevy Coil Schematic

Chevy Board Layout

Ford Coil Schematic

Ford Board Layout

View of Board Mounted Components

Power Control 3 KVA step down Transformer

120 volt Primary 240 volt Secondary

Slides 13/14

Transformer Connections to Board Terminals

High Current Section

Slides 16-22

Low Voltage Power Section

Slides 24/25

Relay Terminal Connections by Color

Slides 26-30

Ground Lead to Head Terminal

Chevy Coil Stud Assembly

High Voltage Arc Start System Connections

Slides 34/35

120 Volt Power Lead to Relays For Air Solenoid & Arc Start Slides 36-38

Arc Tip wire Assembly

Plasma Head Hose Assembly

page 1

Plasma Head Hose Assembly

page 2

Final wiring of External Mounted Parts, like the Head, Water Heater Element, Air Solenoid & Air Regulator & Work Clamp
Slides 43-47

HomemadeTerminal