January, 2003
ESAB (stands for Elektriska Svetsnings-Aktiebolaget) started out in Sweden in 1904, so they are by no means new to the welding/plasma cutting world.  They have been in the US for some years and produce a high quality product.  They are a true world company.  Follow along as I review the ESAB PowerCut 1125 plasma cutter.  For those of you who have not heard about plasma cutting, or have heard of it but do not know what it is.  Here is a brief description.

Most everyone knows of the three most common states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.  The little talked about fourth state of matter is Plasma.  To give an example, water in its natural state is in liquid form, when frozen (ice) it's in the solid state, boil water (steam) and you have the gas state.  Super heat it and you have Plasma.  Without getting into the super technical terms, plasma cutting was discovered by Union Carbide in the 1950's while they were experimenting with TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas, a.k.a. Heliarc) welding.  Plasma cutting started seeing commercial use for the first time in the 1960's.  It originally was very expensive and you saw little or no home usage.  After years of refinement and technological advancement the price has dropped dramatically and units are now much more affordable and they are showing up more and more in small shops and home hobby shops at a record rate.

Plasma cutters will cut any metal that will conduct electricity.  Steel, stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, copper, brass etc.  With the right contact tip and electrode,  you can not only cut, but plasma gouge as well.  This means you can gouge out a weld or a rivet with little or no (depending on your skill) damage to the surrounding parts.  This is an awesome time saver when having to remove parts that are had to get at with a hand or air grinder.  Cutting mild steel (as stated above) is like a hot knife through butter.  Plasma has several advantages over Oxy/Acetylene, there are no flammable gas's involved in the cutting process, it is a cleaner cut with less or no dross (again depending on your skill and the machine settings).  It will cut any metal that conducts electricity (oxy/acetylene only cuts steel).  There is no pre-heating to red hot before you can cut, and the heated zone is more localized for less impact on the surrounding metal.  

Now you ask, so what does the plasma cutter require to cut?  Two key things:  Electricity and good, clean dry compressed air.  The air can be supplied from an air compressor or from high pressure compressed air tanks. There are also some plasma cutters that come with their own on board air compressor so all you have to do is plug it in (these are usually limited to cutting 3/16" or thinner material).  There are some consumables involved, the most common ones are electrodes and the nozzle.  These are made of closely machined copper and due to the high heat the plasma process works at, they get worn down (actually kind of a melted pit) and have to be replaced every so often.

Now that you have a little better understanding of what Plasma Cutting is, take a look at what the ESAB PowerCut 1125 can do.  I obtained a PowerCut 1125, and the following optional accessories for it (torch wrap and kit holder part number 0558003013, wheel kit part number 0558003014, torch guide kit part number 604608, and the plasma flow measuring kit part number 19765 as well as some spare consumables).  The PowerCut 1125 comes with the new PT-32 torch.  You can get a 25 foot or 50 foot long manual cut torch in either one of the two voltage ranges that the machine comes in (208/230 volt or 460 volt).  The PT-32 torch is newly designed, it has two activation buttons, one on the front and one on the back.  This gives a lot of convenience and cutting comfort, in addition to this, the consumables last longer helping out with the costs of cutting.  I got the model with the 25 foot long torch in the 200/230 volt range.  The unit is set up to run at 230 volt from the factory, it also comes with a pre wired and installed 3 prong plug.  If you need to run it off of 200 volt input, you need to remove a panel and change a few jumper wires.  The unit will also auto adapt to a 15 volt +/- voltage difference. 

The 1125 has an included air/water filter/regulator.  Its on the back of the unit along with the large red power switch.  On the front of the unit is the air pressure gauge, power and fault lights, switches for AIR test/operate, TRIGGER lock/unlock, and finally the power output control knob.  The unit has an output range from 20 amps up to 70 amps.  This lets you cut thin sheet metal all the way up to a quality cut in 1 1/8" mild steel.  It also has a 100% duty cycle at the full 70 amps.  What this means is you can cut continuously without pause.  The PowerCut is very sturdy with a  Fiberglass/Aluminum main body construction.  The input and output wires are high quality with good protection where they emerge from the case.  It comes with handy carry handles on either end and is made for hard use.  It is a Pilot Arc start unit, which means that you can use it around computers or in a CAD controlled  plasma cutting table without worry of hurting the computer.  High Frequency start units are not suitable for these type applications.