Best Plasma Cutters For Stainless Steel 2023- Reviews & Buying Guide

If you belong to the stainless steel business, your main concern can be cutting stainless steel efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately, not all plasma cutters can cut stainless steel, so finding one for it is a real hassle. Best plasma cutters for stainless steel work on high frequency to offer high amperage for effective and precise cutting.

In this review article, we have discussed the best plasma cutters for stainless steel cutting. They can bring ease and quality to the stainless steel cutting process without any compromise on quality.

How to cut stainless steel is another important factor to look into it.

We have also discussed important aspects of stainless steel cutting so give a read to the article till the end.

Here we go.

TOP PICKS

Top plasma cutters for stainless steel 2023

1. Lotos LT5000D Plasma Cutter 50Amps

Lotos LT5000D is one of the famous plasma cutters for stainless steel cutting. It comes with small size, portable, and lightweight features with a handle on the top. You can easily cut through stainless steel plates up to a thickness of ½”. The other materials include mild steel, alloy steel, aluminum, copper, and many other ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

The unit is fully optimized for safety as it does not use any hazardous gas. Instead, it uses compressed air to generate the plasma. Furthermore, the cutter is fast action speedy and easy to set up. With its pre-installed NPT industry type D plug, you can quickly set up the whole system to the cutter with an air filter regulator.

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The plasma cutter is best rated because of its dual voltage functionality. It works on 110/120 V and 220/240 V to give you a fine quality cut for multiple thicknesses.

We have listed down complete features of this plasma cutter in the following section.

Features:

Cutting capability

The plasma cutter offers a wonderful cutting solution for stainless cutting. Furthermore, you can easily cut mild steel, alloy steel, aluminum, and copper with it up to ½” thickness.

Input voltage

When the cutter is run on a high voltage of 220/240 V, it produces 10-50 A DC output and gives a clean-cut of ½” and ¾” at maximum severance.

At 110/120 V, it gives 10-35A DC to give ⅓” clean-cut and ⅖” maximum severance.

PAPST cooling system

The plasma cutter is based on a PAPST cooling system, which keeps the internal components cool to avoid any shutdown or breakage. This helps to maintain the durability and the long life of consumables—moreover, the duty cycle increases, and downtime decreases.

2. Lotos CT520D 50 AMP Air

LotosCT520D is the top-rated plasma cutter for stainless steel because of its efficiency, portability, and durability. In addition, the cutter comes in a small size with a weight of 33 pounds only. This lightweight feature makes the plasma cutter highly portable and easy to transport from site to site.

Moreover, the strong and robust body can withstand environmental conditions needing less repair and maintenance.

The wonderful part of this plasma cutter is its stick and TIG technologies. It is a 3 in 1 welder and cutter based on TIG and STICK welding technologies. It means you don’t need another welder in your workshop for your fabrication needs.

You can get a clean cut up to ½” thickness which is an ideal thickness while cutting stainless steel, mild steel, aluminum, and copper. The maximum severance thickness is ¾”.

The cutter operates on a 10-200 Amp DC output current during the TIG welding process to give you high-quality welding of thick and thin gauges. In stick welding, the output current is 15-200 Amps DC with easy start the arc and high-quality welding results.

You can easily and quickly set up the plasma cutter within one minute. This happens because of a pre-installed D plug that connects the cuter with the air filter regulator within no time to start cutting operation.

All the features of this multipurpose plasma cutter are written in the following section.

Features

Cutting capability

The plasma cutter can cut stainless steel plates up to the thickness of ½” with a maximum severance of ¾.” Moreover, it can cut alloy steel, mild steel, copper, and aluminum.

TIG/Stick welding

This plasma cutter is a multipurpose machine with TIG welding and sticks welding capabilities. It is a 2 in 1 cutter which facilitates you in cutting and welding at the same time. The output current reaches 15 amps to 2000 amps for both tig and stick welding, providing a strong weld with a high-quality surface finish.

You can easily weld stainless steel plates with this welding technique. It offers a high-frequency strike that starts instantly for the operation. In addition, a deep welding pool ensures precise and accurate welding for thick and thin materials with a small heat-affected zone and less warping of surrounded areas.

Fast action with quick setup

The plasma cutter has a pre-installed NTP D plug that quickly connects the cutter with an air filter regulator. All of this process takes even less than a minute. This way, you can have a time-saving process of setup with fast cutting action.

3. Reboot Inverter Portable 110V CUT40

This plasma cutter is based on IGBT  inverter technology to offer you the best features throughout the cutting process. It gives the best results when you cut stainless steel with it, and you can get a cutting thickness up to ⅖”.

Moreover, a plasma cutter has a strong and robust structure that can withstand harsh weather conditions without any deterioration. The small-sized plasma cutter is highly portable to carry along with you, either you work in a DIY shop or your industrial workplace.

You can trust the plasma cutter without any doubt as the manufacturer offers 30 days unlimited warranty for you to test the consumables and the plasma cutter. This warranty continues for one year on limited parts of the cutter so you can quickly test and use it.

We have listed down a complete list of features in the following section.

Features

Input voltage

The plasma cutter works on a single voltage of 110V, so there is not any hassle of voltage switch and high power sources needed. You can easily run the plasma cutter on household voltage. It gives an output of 60 Amps with a 60% duty cycle. The manufacturer suggests using a breaker of 60 Amps with it.

Cutting capacity

The plasma cutter is made to cut stainless steel up to ⅖” thickness with efficiency and cleanliness. As a result, you don’t get any slag during the cut, and a high-quality clean cut is attained. Moreover, it can also cut steel, alloy steel, mild steel, and non-ferrous metals.

Cast iron and chrome materials can also be cut with this plasma cutter.

Package includes

The plasma cutter comes with many consumables, and the whole package is highly economical. It includes one power source, 13 feet cutting torch, electrode holder, cutting clamp cable, and an air pressure valve.

Factors affecting the stainless steel plasma cutting

Cutting stainless steel with a plasma cutter needs a complete understanding of the factors involved in the process.

It involves gas, amperage, cutting speed, and effective thickness that can be attained through plasma cutting. So let’s discuss these factors to have in-depth knowledge about stainless steel plasma cutting.

1. Right kind of gas for stainless steel Cutting

The plasma gas for cutting stainless steel is different for various plasma cutters. In air plasma cutters, we simply use dry air to cut through stainless steel. As the air consists of 78% nitrogen, you get pretty, effective, and consistent air plasma cutters. But other gas system plasma cutters have a better surface finish and quality as compared to air plasma cutters.

2. Cutting speed

Cutting speed really depends upon the plasma cutting process you are using. You can obtain high speed of the process is machine automized, but manual cutting involves slow cutting speeds. When you work at competitively slower speeds, you get near-perfect clean-cutting without any dross. On the other hand, the high-speed process produces high dross while cutting. Cutting speed is directly proportional to the cutting current in amps. A general recommended cutting current is 130 amps that produce 400mm/min cutting speed, rated number 1 quality.

3. Cutting range

Cutting range is the maximum thickness that you can achieve., rated without dross. Dross needs secondary processes on the workpiece after cutting, so a dross-free limit is what we get in the cutting range.

How to choose a plasma cutter for stainless steel cutting

Choosing a plasma cutter needs some understanding of your work, project type, applications, and of course, the budget.

1. Knowing your requirements can easily narrow down your research. Your requirements include the cutting thickness you want to attain, the volume of your work, and the type of work, either DIY or professional.
2. Budget is also another important consideration. If you buy a cheap plasma cutter, you may e getting slow speed and low amperage plasma cutter.
3. For professional work, you need a cutter that can handle large volume work. DIY works need a small plasma that is portable and can run on household electricity.
4. Don’t choose a cutter with expensive consumables. Instead, try to get a cutter that requires easy and simple consumables. Then, it will be easy, convenient, and economical to have the consumables for you later.
5. Plasma cutters with a warranty give you freedom of use. You can use and understand the working of the cutter without any fear. Like any problem you come across may have a solution from the manufacturer within warranty.

FAQS

1. What kind of gas does a plasma cutter use?

Generally, air plasma cutters use dry air as plasma cutting gas in the process. But other gas plasmas cutting systems use industrial gas combinations available in the market.

2. How hot does a plasma cutter get? 

Plasma cutters can reach up to 25000 degrees celsius while cutting through the metals.

3. What is the best way to cut stainless steel?

It depends upon the requirement and the size of work you have. But generally, plasma cutting is the best technique to cut bulk quantities of stainless steel plates.

4. How much does a plasma cutter cost?

There is a variety of plasma cutters you can get at different prices. Generally, they range from $200-$800, but some high-end plasma cutters are also available above $1000.

5. What can you do with a plasma cutter?

Plasma cutters help to cut through different metals. There are many cutters that also have welding technology in them. So along with cutting, plasma cutters can also play a role in fabrication.

Conclusion

We have given some top products review above. Also, a comprehensive guide is provided to choose the best product. Study the guide before selecting the guide. Then, choose the product which suits you. Our choice is Lotos LT5000D.