Plasma Arc Cutting (PAC) is a thermal cutting process that is commonly found in many welding and fabrication shops. These machines are so affordable now that even a lot of home hobbyists have started using them in their home garages.
Plasma arc cutting has many advantages over Oxy-fuel cutting and is usually my first choice in the shop when I need to do any metal cutting. For one, it cuts any metal that is electrically conductive; unlike Oxy-Fuel which is limited to ferrous materials only. It also cuts much faster than Oxy-Fuel on all materials, this in turn causes a much smaller heat effective zone (HAZ).
Now as with anything in life, we have to take some of the bad with the good. Plasma Cutters are not as portable as Oxy-Fuel systems. In order to run a Plasma cutter, we have to have electricity, whether it is a wall outlet or ran off an appropriately sized generator. The next item we will need is an air supply. We can get this by one of two ways, either high pressured cylinder or an air compressor. Either way, it limits our portability. There are units out there that generate their own air but they are rather expensive. Depending on the type of cutting you plan to do, you will have to make the decision which system is best for you and your budget. Consumables are another downside to this system. On average, consumables will last 1-2 hours for handheld operations and 3-4 for mechanized operations.
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