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 How I Made My OwnPlasma Cutter From Junk

By Joe Eichholz

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Table of Contents

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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 Making My Plasma Cutter Page 1

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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

How I began Page 2

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Introduction

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Parts

Pictorial

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Chevy CoilSchematic

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Chevy Board

  Layout

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 Ford CoilSchematic

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Ford Board

  Layout

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  Vie of Board!ounted

Com"onents

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  Poer Control

# $V% ste" don  Transformer 

 

&'( volt Primary

  ')( volt Secondary

  Slides *&)

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TransformerConnections to BoardTerminals

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+i,h

Current

Section

Slides &-.'' 

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  Lo Volta,e

  Poer

Section

  Slides ')*'/

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  Slides '-.#(

  0elay Terminal

Connections  by Color 

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1round Lead to+ead Terminal

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Chevy Coil Stud

 %ssembly

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  +i,h Volta,e

  %rc Start

System

  Connections

  Slides #)*#/

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  120 Volt Power Lead to elays  For !ir "olenoid # !r$ "tart

"lides %&'%(

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  %rc Ti" ire

 %ssembly

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 Plasma +ead +ose

 %ssembly

"a,e &

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 Plasma +ead +ose

 %ssembly

"a,e '

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Final irin,of

E2ternal !ounted Parts3li4e the +ead3

5ater +eater Element3 %ir Solenoid 6 %ir

0e,ulator65or4 Clam"

"lides )%')*

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  +omemadeTerminal