How I Made My Own Plasma Cutter From Junk

By Joe Eichholz

Table of Contents

When I started assembling my cutter, I began with taking a good look at my parts. Asshown in Section 5 and Section 6, my parts are laid out so I can begin checking off frommy parts list. Once this was accomplished, I would study each the parts pictorial to getfamiliar with each part/component and they would be placed.

The next step was to study my schematic and create a layout diagram. My board layoutdiagram is the most valuable piece in the building, repairing, and modifying process ofmy cutter.

As I began mounting my parts, I organized my board into four sections. Those sectionsare Power Control, High Current DC, Low Voltage DC and High Voltage Arc Start.

Power Control3KVA step down transformer and contactor. The transformer is mounted off boardbecause it is big and heavy, as you can see in Section 13. The contactor became my firstpart on the board. I wired it so when the head trigger is pressed, it turns the contactor onand allows my DC components to come on line. Then I began with my next system,High Current DC.

High Current DCBridge RectifierLarge CapacitorsReed Switch (which I used as a current sensor), what it does is allow the high voltage arcsystem to fire and as soon as high current starts to travel to the head and cutting starts itshuts down the high voltage arc system while cutting since it’s not needed at this point.If you lose your fire it restarts the arc and gets you going again automatically.My next system was placed on board.

Low Voltage DCThe low voltage DC components are mixed with power switch and 120 volt terminals.Power Switch120-volt terminal blocks12 volt transformerLow voltage bridge rectifierAuto relaysTerminal strip, 4 position is all I needed but 5 position was what I had in my toy box.

High Voltage Arc StartMicrowave capacitor or run capacitor, a household dimmer switch rated for 15 amps. AFord or Chevy ignition coil. I used the Chevy on this cutter. As you can see, I haveterminals to all parts that get an external connection outside of their system so all I haveto do is run a piece of wire in-between. Now look at the pictorial of board mounted partsin Section 11. It shows all the wires on the board, but here you can see all terminals andparts mounted, as I wanted. When wiring all my components, I used my Chevy boardlayout diagram to run my wires.

How I began Making My Plasma CutterPage 1

I checked and re checked all wires before mounting external parts. If you go to the finalwiring section, you will also find pictures of my rigging of these parts. I could have doneit many different ways, but this is what I chose at this time.

It took me about 3 hours of procrastination to finally assemble it all. You know how it ison a project, once you are ready with all your parts, your mind starts giving you a millionways of doing something. And, at last you just 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 28for a safe point to start. I fired it up and BAM - that baby didn’t need any more adjusting.It was cutting!

You can imagine all the relief and pride I felt when the Plasanator started kicking ass.Yea, I said it Kicking Ass Baby. Oops Wife just told me I need to stop, hee hee and forall you creators – ah ah ah ahhhhhh.

I hope you enjoyed riding along with me in my journey.

Take care and be safe.

The Plasmaman

How I began Page 2

Introduction

PartsPictorial

Chevy CoilSchematic

Chevy Board Layout

Ford Coil Schematic

Ford Board Layout

View of Board Mounted Components

Power Control

3 KVA step down Transformer

120 volt Primary 240 volt Secondary

Slides 13/14

Transformer Connections to BoardTerminals

High Current

Section Slides 16-22

Low Voltage

Power

Section

Slides 24/25

Slides 26-30

Relay Terminal Connections by Color

Ground Lead to Head Terminal

Chevy Coil Stud Assembly

High Voltage

Arc Start

System

Connections Slides 34/35

120 Volt Power Lead to Relays For Air Solenoid & Arc Start Slides 36-38

Arc Tip wire Assembly

Plasma Head Hose Assembly

page 1

Plasma Head Hose Assembly

page 2

Final wiring of

External Mounted Parts, like the Head,

Water Heater Element, Air Solenoid & Air

Regulator &

Work Clamp

Slides 43-47

HomemadeTerminal