I looked at the plasma cutter last week and from what I can tell, it seems like the is an issue in the plasma torch itself. When I brought that up at the meeting last night there was mention that someone else had looked at it and voiced the same thing.
From what I have been seeing a replacement torch will run us $200 - $250 for that unit. For $350 we can get a brand new unit that should serve us pretty well.
https://www.amazon.com/Lotos-LT5000D-Plasma-Voltage-Compact/dp/B004VFJL14/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1499879800&sr=8-4&keywords=lotos+plasma+cutter
That Lotos unit has gotten decent reviews on some sites I’ve seen. It is a hobbyist unit, and not an industrial unit. That means that the consumables are more expensive, which would matter if we are using it heavily. It has a maximum clean cut of 1/2" thick and a maximum of 3/4" thick for turning 1 piece into 2 pieces, but right now we have a maximum of 0" on both of those. It only has a duty cycle of 60% which would be an issue if it was seeing lots of use. It is also not $1500.
As I have only ever used 1 single Lincoln Electric plasma cutter I’d love to hear another opinion or two before I put up a vote on this or another unit.