Seeing as you have not had any answers here, I thought that I would give a couple of thoughts - or rather questions that you would need to answer before buying this unit.

Firstly, I must say that this is the first time that I have seen such a unit. It appears to be a Plasma Arc "cutter", but instead of using air or other conventional gas as a means of removing the moulten metal, it uses steam. This leads me to two statements / questions:

1) Some metals such as Al will spontaneously combust when heated in the presence of steam. Do you want to cut such metals? If so, is there a problem? (Usually Al would not be cut thermally because it is so easy to cut with mechanical means, but you never know what ideas people have.)
2) Some metals are extremely sensitive to hydrogen pick-up. Surely this will be a problem when using this unit to cut these metals.

I would say that you need to decide what you want to use this unit for, and then get an assurance from the suppliers that it will do the job.

Regards
Niekie

hey Dave,

I've seen demos of something similar (plasma/water/steam) at one of the AWS Exhibits a few years ago. The one I saw could make cuts in ferrous and non-ferrous sheet up to about ¼ inch. The thing was so efficient that carpet was set about 6 inches under the material being cut and was never burned. So it's relatively spark free and no bright light. It was not as fast as a conventional plasma but sure looked to be Ideal for fine sheet metal work. It was light, did not draw much current, and did not require a compressor. I sure would like to know how one of these babies performs under extended shop conditions.

A minor update here. I'm still waiting on the manual for this gadget. I talked with a tech support person at Harbor Freight who has actually done some welding. He said they've been selling this plasma torch for about a year, and they've had very few returns (that's a good sign). He said it'll cut 1/8" mild steel, stainless, and aluminum, and it'll weld 3/16" in all three. I asked him about how the weld is shielded (given the unit uses water vapor), and he didn't know any answers to this question. He did say "Just try it. The only thing you lose if you order one and return it is about $6." Hard to argue with that. But, I'll still give the manual a good read first when it gets here, then decide if I want to give it a try.

Dave

Hi Folks!

I finally received the manual for this gadget. It's technically an "ALPLAZ-04". The manual has decent pictures, but the wording appears to be a not-so-good translation from a foreign language (big surprise, eh?), but it's still understandable. In a nutshell, here's a rundown.

You fill the torch itself with 2 oz. of water to cut, or 2 oz. of a 60/40 water/alcohol mix to weld or braze. There are 6 amperage settings on the power supply, and a display that shows the voltage. There are two electrodes inside the torch, and there are rings on the torch that you turn to adjust the distance between the two electrodes. Adjusting this distance sets the voltage which shows on the display on the power-supply. You want to get it set so that the voltage is between 160-180 volts to maintain the arc inside the torch. The arc between the two electrodes superheats the water/steam to the "plasma" state. (That part still sounds a little hokey to me, but who knows.) You then turn on the power supply, and press and release a button on the back of the torch to make the electrodes contact and seperate, starting the arc. Apparently the super-heated steam "plasma" rushes out the front of the torch at a temperature of around 15,000 degrees fahrenheit. According to the manual, you get what looks like a pin-point kind of "jet flame". The manual says the flame is very similar to a oxy-acetylene torch, except that the temperature is higher and it's a more focused "jet flame". As you select different amperage settings on the power-supply, you turn the rings on the torch to adjust the voltage to between 160-180 volts, as shown on the power-supply's display.

To cut, you simply point the tip at the metal and get the torch as close as possible (or touch the tip to the metal). To weld or braze, you apply flux to the pieces, then purportedly use the torch and filler rods the same way you would with an oxy-acetylene torch. So, I believe I may have partially answered my own question about what shields the weld pool (the flux you apply). The manual also said specifically to use a 40/60 mix of alcohol/water (any kind of alcohol) when welding or brazing. I'm also wondering if the alcohol decomposes in the heat into something that also shields the weld pool. Anyone know the chemistry behind this? (It would be nice if the manual made any clear statements about this, but it doesn't.)

So, no arc actually touches the metal, it's contained inside the torch. The "jet flame" that comes out the end is what provides the heat. There's no ground clamp that you connect to the work piece because there's no current flowing through it.

This is a very interesting approach and now I really wonder how well it actually works. Right off though, one impression I have is it probably isn't the most durable thing I've ever seen/read about. If I already had 220V power in my little workshop, I'd probably order one just to experiment with (even if I ended up returning it later).

So, what's everyone's thoughts?

Dave