Having read reviews stating that Primeweld provides good service, I decided to spend a little more for some piece of mind, and to support a seller that takes care of customers after sale. Having never run a plasma cutter, I had some questions and sent emails to Primeweld, whcich were answered within an hour. He answered my questions, and sent me tool in the mail (his cost for tool and shipping) that he hoped make my experience better while welding with 110 voltage. It does now run pretty well with 110, but physics is a stubborn thing, and only so much current can go through a 20amp 110-120 circuit. So if you need to cut steel thicker than 1/8" regularly you'll have better cuts with 220. And that's with any machine. It just takes a lot of current to blow through thick steel. I got this because I was given a 60" square of 1/8" steel, and it's reallt nastbto cut with a torch. The Primeweld 50 cut it cleanly, even on 120v, though it was a little slow. Think realistically how often you'll need to cut steel thicker than that. If you do, plan on wiring in a 220v 30amp outlet. Otherwise, you'll be ok with 120v. Photo is of 1/2" cold roll it cut through in about 5 seconds. That would have taken a long time with my torch, and burned a lot of acetylen. I suspect that many of these machine have similar guts, and what differentiates them is the quality of the accessories and the support. I was impressed with the accessories. There's plenty of hose and fasteners, so you don't need to scrounge around getting it set up. And if you have a question, I'm sure the folks at Primeweld will do whatever they can to get you straight.
Doug
Aylett, VA

NOT MADE IN THE USA (made in China of course) I recommend anyway.
Watch out for slag droppings.
Cutting sheet metal to 1/8" steel works well using standard 110.
Cutting up to 3/8" steel worked with 110 house current did ok but very slow going. Moving over to 220 was a lot better and faster cuts. 3/4 to 1" low carbon steel bbl using 220 did ok, just very messy and slow going. Just for the heck of it I tried it on 110 and was not surprised to see I was only able to make shallow scars. Best results using 220.

Worth every penny and cuts 1/4" plate like nothing Bought the 50d plasma cutter

I received this Plasma Cutter today after ordering it just 3 days ago. I'll have to admit, I wasn't expecting much for $299 but I had a bunch of 4 inch standard pipe that I wanted to cut up and get rid of. The pipe is only quarter inch wall so I hoped it would at least cut that up. Now, I've been a metal fabricator for 37 years and used hand held plasma cutters since they became mainstream in the 80's. This little machine blew me away, it cuts just as good as the 2700 dollar Hypertherm machine that we have at the shop I work at. I have added 2 pics of a piece of HALF INCH plate that I cut with this machine. Keep in mind that I have done this for a very long time and have had lots of practice using one. Slow down, get a good comfortable position and let the machine cut. If you're getting sparks blowing up around the tip, you are going too fast. I cut this plate at 50 amps with 80 psi air pressure. I have a small campbel-hausfield compressor with a 13 gallon tank and it did just fine. I put it on a 50 amp breaker that I had for my welding machine and had no problems. I also bought replacement consumables with it and replaced the ones that came installed on the machine as they seemed to be a bit more heavy duty. I can't attest to the longevity of this machine, but it has a three year warranty and other reviewers say they have had good experiences with customer service. If I had to assign a single word to this machine it would have to be "Awesome"

Everything worked perfectly for two years with occasional home-owner use.

Then a few days ago a hole blew through the side of the torch, probably because I did not keep a clean tip on the torch. The replacement torch is not working as well as the original. I'm quite sure the machine is still as it should be and I've got the wrong torch. Now I'm going to try using the right epoxy to fix the hole. Hopefully I can come back here to report on the success of that...

Question: what torch should I buy as a good replacement?