Plasma cutter vs angle grinder vs oxy-acetylene for a home shop
Difficultyeasy
For sheet and plate under 3/8": a 40 amp plasma cutter ($300 to $500, needs dry compressed air) is faster and cleaner than anything else and cuts aluminum and stainless. Grinder with cutoff wheels handles everything else for $0 extra and is what you use 80% of the time anyway. Oxy-acetylene cuts thicker steel, heats and bends, but the bottles and rent add up and you cannot cut aluminum.
If you already have a compressor, plasma is the upgrade that changes what you build. If you don't, buy more cutoff wheels.
#plasma-cutter#angle-grinder#oxy-acetylene#tools#welding
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Question: do you need to disconnect power for this or is it safe to leave it plugged in?
Glad it helped.
Upvoted for the safety notes alone.
Unplug it. Always. Takes two seconds and the worst case otherwise is a trip to the ER.
Tried this over the weekend and it worked first time. Thanks for writing it up properly.