Lincoln P20 Plaza Cutter on the fritz

[canuck750]

Anyone have any experience with these small Lincoln P20 plasma cutters?

Mine went dead this week, it cycles, idiot lights do what they should, correct air pressure but it won't spark up and light.

Just pisses air for three seconds while it try's to light then starts the cycle over.

Repair shop told me minimum $160 to investigate but they weren't hopeful they could fix it, fact was they suggested I just buy a new one, damn I hate the throw away attitude of so many shops.

I have less than 20 hours on it and would hate to toss it.

Any advice on what to test / look for would sue be appreciated, I need to cut out plates to make more V7 Sport front signal brackets.

Thanks
Jim

[rodekyll]

What do the lights say?

The most common reasons for what you describe are low shore-power voltage, open circuit (or bad contact) at the work lead (ground cable), and a bad logic board.

I'd check the receptacle power first for full voltage.  If you're on 110, do the 220 hookup and v/v if you havethe 220 active.  Then check and make sure you have continuity at both the head and the ground.

I was about ready to pull the trigger on this or a similar unit.  Every time I am in range of a purchase though I hear one of these horror stories.  I'll be interested in if you can fix it and what the problem is.

Here's a link to their opman:  http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/servicenavigator-public/lincoln3/im10006.pdf

[canuck750]

Thank you! I will try that, 

Jim

[Triple Jim]

Repair shop told me minimum $160 to investigate but they weren't hopeful they could fix it, fact was they suggested I just buy a new one...

That would set off alarms in my head, causing me to go to a different shop.  How about sending it to Lincoln if you don't fix it yourself following Rodekyll's advice?

My aunt once took her Chevy to the dealer because it wasn't shifting out of 1st gear properly.  The service manager told her that it would cost more than the car was worth to fix it, but she could get a great price on a new one from a buddy of his that worked in sales.  I drove her in her car to a reputable transmission shop, where the owner drove it, adjusted the throttle cable so it shifted properly, and refused to take money for the small adjustment.

[rodekyll]

Canuck -- how clean and precise is a p-cutter of that size and price?  Could I use one to do panel gauge cutouts in sheet metal?  I see them bundled with welders a lot like printers get bundled with computers.  And like the computer, the welder costs the same with or without the cutter.  The printers I see in those packages are generally so cheeep that folks toss them rather than buy new ink, and the mfgrs don't offer service kits like for real office-grade printers.  I was thinking of getting one because they're inexpensive enough to take a chance on, but reviews from actual users would be more helpful.

[canuck750]

Until it suddenly crapped out I was very pleased with it. It cuts through sheet metal (16 ~ 20 ga.) like butter, very clean cut. I was using it to cut 1/16" steel plate, again very clean cut. The machine is rated to cut 1/4" but it struggles a bit, still works but not as nice a cut (probably due to my ability more than anything). Having grown up with oxy/acetylene cutting and welding the little plasma cutter is a nice upgrade. I still have my old oxy/acetylene outfit but paired with a Lincoln 180 Mig welder and my Miller AC/DC stick welder I really don't use the gas anymore but for heating steel, freeing rusted nuts etc.

I hope I can get the Lincoln P20 running, I am going to try some other repair shops on the weekend for advice, got my fingers crossed, hate to toss a $900 unit in the bin!

[rodekyll]

I just got access to a Hobart Beta 200 mig/tig welder.  I added a spoolmate 185 gun and controller for the aluminum stuff and am very happy with it.  I come from an oxy/acet welding background too, and I can see the advantages of MIG all day.  I only use the oxy setup for braising and heating now.

 The plasma cutter at the shop is a huge thing and hard to dial down to .050 sheet.  It wants to cut thick steel stock and just destroys the sheet metal.  So I've been toying with the idea of a lighter-duty unit -- one with the potential to go 110v.  My research says Miller is generally a good choice, so I'm very interested in how this shakes out for you.

[canuck750]

I hear back from the repair shop, not good news, the Lincoln P20 has a one piece motherboard, all sealed and the replacement cost is $900.00, plus it needs a solenoid switch for another $120.00, the machine was under $1000 new. Obviously Lincoln doesn't want to support these units, The ID tag says made in Italy but the repair shop believes the mother board is outsourced off shore, probably Korea or China. The shop checked around with some other Lincoln repair depots and found that they see these burnt out units quite often and no one ever pays to fix them. What a rip off.

I was advised to go for a Miller Spectrum or a HypoTherm Powermax if I am going to replace it with a new one.

A kick in the teeth! :'(

[Triple Jim]

I've heard good things about Hypertherm plasma cutters from others, and I used one for a while on a CNC table I built from a kit for a company I was doing some work for.  It seemed to perform exactly as it was supposed to.  At the time, about 12 years ago, an advantage of Hypertherm was that they didn't make a bunch of RF that interfered with computers nearby.

[rodekyll]

Thanks for the report, and sorry it's an expensive, throw-away tool.  This will certainly influence my purchase.  I see that model can be had complete and free shipping  (except for me) for $700 on ebay.  But with a replacement board of $900 it's a false economy for sure.