JRWPC45LT Plasma Cutter, 45 amp

Edit: It's now nearly 2 years into owning this plasma cutter. Still cutting like a champ. I've run into only one issue that was my own fault. Wet air and plasma cutting do not mix. Wet air kills consumables very fast. I use this on a CNC plasma table with water table. During one use I created so much humidity in my shop that the compressor was sending air so moist that my dryer was not keeping up and caused a bunch of issues with the arc control software. After some discussion with the manufacturer (who were very good BTW) they identified my problem. I use it regularly and it still works great. The only knock against it I have is that consumable life is short on the s45 torch. That's not unique to this model, but the lifespan of the consumables for s45 torches are just not as good as those from hypertherm. I've also swapped to an S65 size torch and found that the larger consumables for that model last a bit longer as well. But most importantly feeding it very dry air is the best way to extend the life of the consumables. Overall though - it's been basically flawless and cut a lot of steel. Easily worth the purchase price. I would buy again without hesitation for anything other than production shop type use. At some level the consumable costs over time would probably make a powermax 45 cheaper. For me so far it fits my hobby shop budget and cuts like a champ and has exceeded my expectations. This is a first day open box review. I will update in a year or earlier if I find serious issues. First: Yes this is a Chinese product. It's not a hypertherm. I couldn't buy a used hypertherm for twice the price. If I were relying on this for a living, I'd buy a quality American made plasma. On to the review: First thing I did before ordering was call the service number. I wanted to see who answered and if they knew anything about it. The answer was yes. Someone answered. In Washington, USA. They were native English speaking and knew a fair amount about the product. That satisfied me as a potential customer. So I ordered this plasma cutter. It cuts nicely. The gun is a knockoff of a Trafimet S45, or it may just be an actual trafimet s45 with a different plastic handle. It will use typical s45 consumables. And it is a low frequency blowback design. No high frequency! And the pilot arc works perfectly well. The quality of the handle is lower than that of an American brand model. The plastic feels like it will not be as durable. It's hard and likely brittle. But it's also a lot better than other cheaper Chinese models like the Lotos, simadre, etc. It fits nicely in the middle. It's comfortable. Has a modern euro style adapter/plug. And the hose quality is good! And that's a big part of durability. It also makes it very easy to attach. The ground clamp is basic, but functional and again the quality of the wire is good. Nice soft and pliable like a quality cord, not a cheapo harbor freight one. The air fitting is something odd I've never seen before. But it comes with a female adapter and hose with a standard npt thread so I can attach to my own air fittings. Easy to use. I use a 60 gallon air compressor with a 3hp head. Keeps up with no problem. I don't know how much air it uses, but you'll need a compressor that can keep up. I had no problems cutting 1/4". Then turned up to 40amps with a .08 tip. Sliced through 1/2" plate nicely and cleanly with minimal dross. I was impressed. I wanted 1/2" capacity and this plasma will cut it with no problem. I expect that it will cut all thinner materials nicely. I will run this unit on a CNC table and I'll update with cnc table cut quality once I get it dialed in. For now I'll attach a few pictures of hand cut 1/2" plate. My guess is that I can run 1/2" plate at 15-25 in./min. I don't think it'll sever 1", but I don't have any around to try. I'm confident that it will not pierce 1" plate on a CNC table. Update: I'm running this on a cnc. Works good so far. Not sure how much I've cut. [...]

So far, so good. Have probably used it a dozen times so far. Talked with the Razorweld guys on the west coast before purchasing and decided to try this cheaper unit. Works well for my personal fabrication projects. Will update with any issues.

Waited for a while to make this review so I could use it several times. Can't beat it for the money! Use mine alot. Cuts great

I received a torch head that is outdated and apparently unsupported. I couldn't find any consumables that would work with the torch head I received. I ended up buying a new torch head. from langmuir called the x45. it cuts really nice and now I can get consumables, problem is the x45 attachment point doesn't seem to fit just right in the machine. now the torch cord attachment is stuck in my machine. I had to pry it out to get it out and kinda mangled the attachment.

need to replace the drag tip on the whip and no one NO ONE has one this sucks bought electrodes for it and they also dont fit right should have bought a hypertherm

This thing is awesome!!

I've waited a bit to make an informed review. I got this unit and put it on a DIY CNC table. With just the hand torch, it performed and worked. But it really comes alive with a machine torch. Excellent results at half the price of the more expensive plasma units that everyone has. And with the level of performance I don't see a point at the hobby level. More Details I cut mostly 16ga right now. At 100 ipm there is almost no dross. I've cut at as fast as 150 ipm. I need to push it further to see if the cut quality improves even more. I dont really cut anything over 1/4 but will probably try some 1/2, just to test it. I suspect it will struggle to pierce but would cut great with edge start. It performs really well at a pretty high air pressure, I run 95 psi to the unit from a 60 gallon compressor. My cut improved when i moved to that level from my typical 70psi to air tools. I have a separator at the compressor, desiccant before the plasma (roughly 15'), and inline desiccant right at the plasma. No refrigerated air dryer yet. I will say that the hand torch really had only ok results. But another side to that is that I switched to Tecmo blowback style consumables and 1.0mm nozzles. I think that is the biggest change. And the fact that I can hold the machine torch very securely perfectly straight up and down. The hand torch can use the high quality Italy made Tecmo blowback consumables, so keep that in mind. Will post some pictures of the cuts, I don't have pictures of the back unfortunately. I'll take some and post them when I think about it.

I just started using this plasma cutter with a Langmuir Systems Crossfire CNC machine. So far I am very impressed with the power of the combination of the two machines, especially for the low combined price. Even with the fixed cutting height, the torch has no problem piercing and cutting 14 gauge mild steel at 30 amps and 100 in/s. The pictures attached are of a test piece with those settings. The first edge picture shows the dross from the cut as taken off of the machine and the second edge picture shows the cut quality after I picked the dross off by hand. The only reason that I am not giving this unit a 5-star review is that the nozzles supplied with the S45 style torch have a 0.8mm orifice, which limits the machine to 30 amps without immediately damaging the nozzle and creating a poor cut quality. The attached spec sheet for the S45 torch shows that limit pretty clearly. Since S45 nozzles with the 1mm orifice that is required to achieve the 45 amp advertised cut power are not available without the drag tip, I'm left very carefully drilling all of my nozzles with a #60 bit to not immediately blow through them at the rated amperage. Is it a show stopper to have to modify my consumables for this machine? No. Do I feel duped anyway? Absolutely.