Inspiration

Posted in Making, Plasma Cutter - January 5, 2011 - 0 Comment

There are a few DIY plasma cutter plans floating around the Internet. Most of them are napkin-sketches that someone scanned and put on a forum for experienced welders to blanch at.

A rough schematic of a plasma cutter
Don't try this at home

This has a few issues. The main one is that it’s not properly isolated from the AC mains. An isolation transformer can provide that isolation, and can be improvised from two identical transformers back-to-back, with their secondaries connected. That will act as a 1:1 transformer, but instead of having a conductive path from the input to the output, the power is passed by induction.

I am making a plasma cutter with a pair of isolation transformers made from microwave oven transformers. I chose microwave oven transformers because I can get them for cheap or free, and they can handle a lot of power.

After I wire up my variac, I’m going to test the power supply. Assuming all goes well with the test, I’ll look into getting a plasma torch head off Ebay or from Harbor Freight, and finish the assembly with a borrowed or improvised air compressor.