Yeah, I know I shouldn't be buying Chinese stuff and that they're quietly amassing all the worlds' money, but I'm a weak man and had a moment of indescretion.  Hopefully you can forgive me this one time.

Anyway, a few months back I mentioned I was looking at one of those Cut40/50/60 inverter plasma cutters and thinking about giving it a shot, and I think I promised Jan or someone that if I did buy one I'd write about it.  Instead I bought a used 115v Snap On off ebay for $400.  It was okay at best, but not powerful enough, so I sold it for what I paid for it and started watching for a bargain.  The other day there was someone schlepping 'em cheap and I picked up a Greenlet (up to now famous for Disney fobs for your Crocs - so kind of a natural line extension for them) for $201 - it's a 40 amp 220 unit.  The 50 amp wasn't much more, but with the higher draw I would have needed to rewire the line into my garage, so this one should do for as long as it lasts.  It just got here, and here's my first impressions if you're interested.

The kit was actually very complete and included the filter/regulator and a nice little mounting bracket, which was a surprise, and pretty easy to set up.  Here's some highlights from the directions:

First, I was pleased to see that page one told me about the "gurantee."  That's nice to know.  I'm sure it will be a piece of cake to pick up the phone and get a friendly voice to help me through any issue!

Then I got into the meat of it.  Apparently the unit is "made by international most advantaged invert technical."  AND, "it has functions that it can supply gas ahead and turn off gas delayed!"  Wow, this thing is awesome!

So, I was careful to connect it to a solid 220v supply, because if I "connected wrong to AC 380v, that is will cause components of inter-machine to burn up."  So, with the power voltage "inside waved range" I got ready to roll.  Next up was making sure the work area was adequately ventilated, because "cutting machine is light and it's structure is compact and the electromagnetic fields generated the high current.  So natural wind is not satisfy to cool down components, there are two axial-flow fan in inter-machine in order to force to cool down it."  With the axial fans clearly unobstructed, I got ready to learn how to make some bitchin cuts.

It has a 60% duty cycle, and I'm supposed to be aware of that at all times.  The way I'll know if I've exceeded that is "inter hear-variable component is staring (yes, staring) if machine is exceeded in duty cycles that will cause cutting machine will stop working suddenly and inter red diode is lit."  Pretty much fool proof, really.  A (mandarin-speaking) child could do it.  

Anyway, does it cut?  HELL YEAH it cuts!  Compared to that Snap-On unit this thing is like a ginzu knife in a bowl of melted butter.  I've only played around with it for a few minutes, but it's downright scary compared to what I had before.  Also, it has a pilot arc vs. the contact start on the snap on, so it's just much easier to use.  I've got a fair amount of work to throw at it this weekend so we'll see how it does with consumables and over-all longevity.  So far, I have to say I'm pretty surprised, and at $200 bucks, the whole thing is damn near consumable! 

Greg, you speak Forum languages flawlessly -