Manky Monkey Motors

Hi all...made a list of bits I need to buy this month and for some reason I came apon the idea of getting myself a Plasma Cutter....I lik the look of the Mig/Tig Plasma Cutters but have no idea what a good one would need to be like spec wise?...seen a few on EBay under the £500 mark, wanted some advice before purchasing one please........
Also want to finally buy myself a Pipe bender so any of you recommend a decent make ect for one of those too as dont want to just go and buy Sealy or Clarke before getting feedback from people who have them...thx all....Voodoo.....

I've got a 12 ton Clarke bender. Very basic -just a glorified bottle jack in a frame really, but fine for bending the ERW tube we use for trike frames. Not much cop for thinner walled stuff like exhaust tube though, although I've sometimes gotten away with it by packing the former with strips of aluminium, cut from old Coke cans. All depends what you plan to bend.
Never owned a Plasma but Brock's got one. Might be worth PMing him for advice.

Cheers for info mate,I was thinking of that very same pipe bender.....Voodoo...

I have one of those pipe benders ,works a treat. I think TB has one as well

I do indeed and it does what it says it does. I`ve used it on thinner wall stuff too but you have to be carefull or it will flatten out.

Good stuff,I will get one ordered later from Machine Mart as they dont seem to be any cheaper on EBay.....Now Just need some advice on Plasma cutter Tig Welders lol.....Voodoo....

   I also have one of "those" pipe benders, at the risk of labouring a point, it is a PIPE bender and you shouldn't expect it do be able to deal with tube. There are some sizes that do seem to cross over but wall thickness will make or break it. Valley Gas are agents for Speedway and have their tube bender in stock, about £800 for the bender and a full set of dies, it's the dies that cost. Tubella are the UK agents for the JD3 bender, very good but expensive. I keep looking at them but never seem to be able to justify the cost for a plaything.
 
 T.I.G., the only machine I have ever owned is the butters set that I have now.
http://www.rotecweldingequipment.co.uk/acatalog/butters_ACDC_160_240v_tig_inverter.html

   A great little budget AC/Dc machine, with hindsight I wish I had taken advantage of the reduced price offer on a pedal control when I bought it , but I will survive without it. On top of this you will need a good flow meter and gauge set, rods can be expensive and so is argon. Paul (with the Mustang) has a small scratch start machine which he seems to get on with, DC only so no alloy work and I have to say that the HF start on mine is a far better system, I'll get some details off of him tomorrow.

   Plasma, brilliant, just for the mess and noise and fire and molten metal spraying everywhere. I have a Cebora unit that we got at auction cheap, it then cost another £150 to replace the circuit board, not so cheap. A good tool but needs a fair air supply and that needs to be dry, blowing wet air over high amperage electrodes aint good for you or it, I know ! Consumables can be expensive and services always are. Maybe not top of the list of wanted tools but fun if you score one cheap enough.

I too have that Butters tig, aand I also have a cheap german/chinese rehnmann (??spelling) I got off ebay it's a 200a dc and it has done loads of work,including a lot of runs on 4 and 6mm plate, I also bought one of their plasmas and it too has been ok....both less than £200 but I would get the best you can afford

forgot about the TUBE bender....unless you're doing a lot of heavy builds, I would try to get a used one from ebay...they will always hold their price and you can do a lot more with them...there are plans on the Brit Chopper download section so you could have a go at building your own ...giving you more to spend on a welder  ;)

Thanks for the info on those bits....for now I will just get a Sealey or Clarke 12T pipe bender as I also could not justify spending a lot on one atm (12t under £125 so cheap enough) as it wont see a huge amount of use after ive finished this Reliant trike (which has now been claimed by my missus lol)....I will just grab a Tig around the £200-300 mark for now for the same reasons.......but going to keep my eye out for a cheapish Plasma cutter as eventually one will turn up....Voodoo......

Stay away from anything mig tig or plasma from china. You CAN'T get them repaired over here. I speak from very expensive experience

i got this tig a month or 2 back and im hapy with it

http://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/welding_equipment/Tig_Welder/Tig_Welder_R-Tech_Tig161

they also do a simple DC one for 300 if you dont want to weld ali, but thats kind of one f the things why i wanted acdc - noth that ive done any ali yet - but will be nice when i need to

if youre having trouble with wet air you can use the shielding gas from your mig or tig setup. will give a much cleaner cut i am told