Throatless Shear

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I've been watching Bad Chad build his latest project, and almost had myself convinced to buy a plasma cutter. But, the good ones are more than I can justify, and the cheap ones are, well, cheap. So, the other thing Chad was using the heck out of was his throatless shear. They are only a little over a hundred bucks at HF, so I decided to treat myself. Used the 10% discount that is almost always available. Got it home and put it together, cleaned it up, and realized that it needed fixin' right out of the box. So, I added a return spring. A couple scraps of angle iron, a spring from the junk drawer, and a little cutting and grinding and now the thing works much better, and keeps the handle up out of the way when not in use. The new upgrades do not get in the way of using the tool. A stand for it will happen as soon as I can get to some materials.

 

[05snopro440]

I've been watching Bad Chad build his latest project, and almost had myself convinced to buy a plasma cutter. But, the good ones are more than I can justify, and the cheap ones are, well, cheap. So, the other thing Chad was using the heck out of was his throatless shear. They are only a little over a hundred bucks at HF, so I decided to treat myself. Used the 10% discount that is almost always available. Got it home and put it together, cleaned it up, and realized that it needed fixin' right out of the box. So, I added a return spring. A couple scraps of angle iron, a spring from the junk drawer, and a little cutting and grinding and now the thing works much better, and keeps the handle up out of the way when not in use. The new upgrades do not get in the way of using the tool. A stand for it will happen as soon as I can get to some materials.

I've been gathering tools for my shop now that I have a big space. I've been thinking of a plasma cutter. My dad used a cheap one when he worked at the local high school the last couple years, and it worked great.

I've never really seen a throatless shear in action, I'm curious now.

 

[Skip]

I've been gathering tools for my shop now that I have a big space. I've been thinking of a plasma cutter. My dad used a cheap one when he worked at the local high school the last couple years, and it worked great.

I've never really seen a throatless shear in action, I'm curious now.

Its like a big pair of scissors. You can cut really tight corners and everything. Very little distortion. Cuts 18 gauge steel like paper. Just keep the fingers where you can see 'em.

I still think about a plasma cutter. A fella can't have too many tools. The difference in prices for cheap and really cheap has me wondering, though. Seems the biggest issue is whether or not it is no-touch fire. Price doubles for that little bit of added technology. Then there are the consumables. Cheap units often have expensive consumables. Lincoln just gave Bad Chad a brand new one. I guess it pays to be famous.

 

[DozerII]

Its like a big pair of scissors. You can cut really tight corners and everything. Very little distortion. Cuts 18 gauge steel like paper. Just keep the fingers where you can see 'em.

I still think about a plasma cutter. A fella can't have too many tools. The difference in prices for cheap and really cheap has me wondering, though. Seems the biggest issue is whether or not it is no-touch fire. Price doubles for that little bit of added technology. Then there are the consumables. Cheap units often have expensive consumables. Lincoln just gave Bad Chad a brand new one. I guess it pays to be famous.

Don't be afraid of the cheap plasma cutters My brother and I both bought a $250 ebay one His crapped out after using the crap out of it for two years mine had a switch problem that was an easy fix and still works great consumables are really cheap as well. Only draw back is the Cut 50 will only do a nice clean job up to 1/4"

 

[dutch]

Don't be afraid of the cheap plasma cutters My brother and I both bought a $250 ebay one His crapped out after using the crap out of it for two years mine had a switch problem that was an easy fix and still works great consumables are really cheap as well. Only draw back is the Cut 50 will only do a nice clean job up to 1/4"

Agreed.
Also, if you use it for sheetmetal ,you still need some sort of shear / snips to cut it along the plasma cut edges. A throatless shear then sure comes in handy because you can cut outer and inner curves. Up to 19ga good quality snips (I use Wiss) work great.

 

[Old Iron]

I purchased a Lotus LT5000D plasma cutter, 5 years ago on Amazon for $285.
It's still running to this day with no issues.
https://www.amazon.com/LT5000D-Plasma-Cutter-Voltage-Compact/dp/B0922HKY9B

It is a dual voltage machine 110 or 220 and has the HI freak start so no touching the consumable to the work piece. Consumables are cheap and last quite a while.
It will cut 1/2" but is really slow, anything thinner it does a good job for the money.
I use a Hypertherm 600 and a Hypertherm 65 now and there is no comparison but, you have to consider that they are multiple times the cost of the Lotus.
It wouldn't bother me at all to buy another Lotus. I think they are the same as the
Cut 50's.

 

[05snopro440]

My dad's experience was they had a Miller with an internal air compressor. It never worked well at all, so the other instructor purchased a cheap plasma cutter online from Amazon (Canada), I believe it was the HEROCUT 45 ($230 CAD). It would cut anything without issue, which was not their experience with the Miller.

For a lot of us hobbyists, the more expensive machines are a waste because we aren't using them very frequently, aren't cutting thick material, or a long duty cycle isn't really necessary. We've seen from people like ZZ that with some ingenuity, you can get amazing results and do a lot of work with limited tools.

I'm looking at getting a cold saw for metal cutting, they're supposed to be way better than an abrasive cutting saw (but the blades are a little less forgiving). If you research them, lots of people will tell you that you need a $1,200-$2,000 saw. Many people who have used the $330 saw I'm looking at have said it's great for what it is. Keep in mind most of us aren't doing production, so these cheaper tools will be fine for what we need.