Interest, please review...

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Ok fellas in the last year I got a Miller 210 MIG, a Miller 200 syncro, and have been very happy with both.  I am doing small suspension pieces, the largest being customized brackets for 4link setups.....most of the work is 3/16 size.  My question is some of the pieces have some pretty small vital cuts and knotchs.  I have been doing most of it on a band saw (small) and its very time consuming and tedious.  My question is, and I never worked with a plasma cutter, but can I do these cuts on a plasma.  What I do now is scribe out the shape with my templet and follow the lines with the band saw, do some rounding and cleanup/deburring work and then assemble the pieces.  Thus far the stuff is turning out SUPER nice and have gotten many compliments.  So is a plasma what I should be looking at?  How much dirt is caused by these?  I have a pretty clean shop and don't want slag and other crud flying all over the place.  So please give me the skinny on these units....Best Times with 434 Naturally Aspirated Vette60 - 1.261/8 -  6.37@ 107.25 MPH 1/4 - 10.08 & 134.9MPH1/4 - 9.60@144MPH
Reply:If you have the correct plasma, gas, speed, nozzle, you can cut clean, almost with no clean up.  and probably 10-15 time as fast.  All plasma's are about the same.  JohnSMAW,GMAW,FCAW,GTAW,SAW,PAC/PAW/OFCand Shielding Gases.  There all here. :
Reply:A plasma machine will cut clean as long as your consumables are new and you have good clean air. However, on the other side of the cut you will always have a slight amount of slag and what is called kerf. Kerf if the angle at which the plasma cuts the material. You will always have kerf, even down to the thin materials, such as 16 ga. So, you must compensate for the kerf difference when making a part...if your part has to be held to a tolerance. Also, on the other end of the cut you will get debris and slag. If you don't have a slag chute or cutting cart to contain it, it will fly all over your shop. I made a cheap containment cart out of an HF cart. See my post here: http://www.weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread...t=plasma+tableThis helps contain the slag, black ash and other crap from making the cuts. You have air at 60 or 70 psi pushing the cut so the debris WILL blow all over...again, unless contained. Even then, you will get some residual dust.John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:I try to not use the plasma unless I need to..The vert and hor band saws do it for me.  I sometimes think plasmas are overrated;however, once I get mine set just right and get the templates clamped its great too.  Some tight spots I have no choice but use it. weld it like you own it
Reply:if you are doing a lot of uniform pieces, and are making many identical units, you may want to look at farming out a water-cutting job. lots of pieces, uniform shape, and best of all, no work for you, and no clean-up or scrap to have around your shop. it may be cheaper than buying a plasma also. i know plasmas can come in handy for a lot of projects... i actually wish i had one myself. however, one shoudl really look at the fisablility and actual need for a machine like that. personally, i can't justify the $1,000+ price tag on one when all it woudl do is save me time instead of using my angle grinder with a cutting wheel, or a saw of some sort.check out a place called "Fusion-Tech". that's where we get all of our custom-cut pieces for the shop i work at. our usual order includes a few 3/8" thick 304 SS flanges with an OD ranging from 9.25" on up. i'm not sure what their exact capacities are, but i would be willing to bet that they are able to cut you some suspension pieces.http://www.ftiinc.org/demo/index.htmllater,Andy
Reply:Originally Posted by aczellerif you are doing a lot of uniform pieces, and are making many identical units, you may want to look at farming out a water-cutting job. lots of pieces, uniform shape, and best of all, no work for you, and no clean-up or scrap to have around your shop. it may be cheaper than buying a plasma also. i know plasmas can come in handy for a lot of projects... i actually wish i had one myself. however, one shoudl really look at the fisablility and actual need for a machine like that. personally, i can't justify the $1,000+ price tag on one when all it woudl do is save me time instead of using my angle grinder with a cutting wheel, or a saw of some sort.check out a place called "Fusion-Tech". that's where we get all of our custom-cut pieces for the shop i work at. our usual order includes a few 3/8" thick 304 SS flanges with an OD ranging from 9.25" on up. i'm not sure what their exact capacities are, but i would be willing to bet that they are able to cut you some suspension pieces.http://www.ftiinc.org/demo/index.htmllater,Andy
Reply:handheld plasma are good for "close enough" jobs but for precision its all based on how steady your hand is .  A CNC Driven plasma however is a different story .  So if you need precision don't do plasma unless you have a surgeons hands or you plan on getting a cnc table.
Reply:I take templates of gussets and stuff to a laser cutter locally here. He busts out a couple hundred of them at a time when he does them for me. It brings the cost of, say a D shaped one hole tab for lights, or shock mounts down to a buck or less a piece. And that's for a small run, of maybe 100 pieces. If I go nuts, it can be much more cost effective. (Anybody need 600+ rectangular SS plates with a 1"x 1-1/2" cutout???!!!)And then, after so much work...... you have it in your hand, and you look over to your side...... and the runner has run off. Leaving you holding the prize, wondering when the runner will return.