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. y board layout diagram is the most !aluable piece in the building, repairing, and modifying process of my cutter. As I began mounting my parts, I organi"ed my board into four sections. Those sections are #ower $ontrol, %igh $urrent &$, 'ow (oltage &$ and %igh (oltage Arc )tart. Power Control *+(A step down transformer and contactor. The transformer is mounted off board because it is big and hea!y, 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 &$ components to come on line. Then I began with my next system, %igh $urrent &$. High Current DC ,ridge -ectifier 'arge $apacitors -eed )witch .which I used as a current sensor/, what it does is allow the high !oltage arc system to fire and as soon as high current starts to tra!el to the head and cutting starts it shuts down the high !oltage arc system while cutting since it0s not needed at this point. If you lose your fire it restarts the arc and gets you going again automatically. y next system was placed on board. Low Voltage DC The low !oltage &$ components are mixed with power switch and 123 !olt terminals. #ower )witch 1234!olt terminal blocks 12 !olt transformer 'ow !oltage bridge rectifier Auto relays Terminal strip, 5 position is all I needed but 6 position was what I had in my toy box. High Voltage Arc Start icrowa!e capacitor or run capacitor, a household dimmer switch rated for 16 amps. A 7ord or $he!y ignition coil. I used the $he!y on this cutter. As you can see, I ha!e terminals to all parts that get an external connection outside of their system so all I ha!e to do is run a piece of wire in4between. 8ow 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 $he!y 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 ha!e done it many different ways, but this is what I chose at this time. It took me about * hours of procrastination to finally assemble it all. 9ou know how it is on a pro:ect, once you are ready with all your parts, your mind starts gi!ing you a million ways of doing something. And, at last you :ust 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 2; for a safe point to start. I fired it up and ,A 4 that baby didn0t need any more ad:usting. It was cutting< 9ou can imagine all the relief and pride I felt when the #lasanator started kicking ass. 9ea, I said it +icking Ass ,aby. Oops Wife :ust told me I need to stop, hee hee and for all you creators = ah ah ah ahhhhhh. I hope you en:oyed riding along with me in my :ourney. Take care and be safe. The #lasmaman

Introduction

Parts Pictorial

Chevy Coil Schematic

Chevy Board Layout

Ford Coil Schematic

Ford Board Layout

Vie of Board !ounted Com"onents

Po er Control # $V% ste" do n Transformer

&'( volt Primary ')( volt Secondary

Slides &#*&)

Transformer Connections to Board Terminals

+i,h Current Section

Slides &-.''

Lo

Volta,e Po er Section

Slides ')*'/

0elay Terminal Connections by Color

Slides '-.#(

1round Lead to +ead Terminal

Chevy Coil Stud %ssembly

+i,h Volta,e %rc Start System Connections

Slides #)*#/

120 Volt Power Lead to elays For !ir "olenoid # !r$ "tart "lides %&'%(

%rc Ti" ire %ssembly

Plasma +ead +ose %ssembly

"a,e &

Plasma +ead +ose %ssembly

"a,e '

Final irin, of E2ternal !ounted Parts3 li4e the +ead3 5ater +eater Element3 %ir Solenoid 6 %ir 0e,ulator 6 5or4 Clam"
"lides )%')*

+omemadeTerminal