Well I bought a Telwin Superplasma 62/2 made in Italy, it will cut up to 12 mm steel. It is a transformer based cutter, which means it is rather big and heavy. What I do like about the transformer based is that it is a simple construction which hopefully will be more reliable. It needs to be connected to an external air compressor, which is not a problem here. Price was around 1000 USD



The alternative was an IMS 20K which only cuts 6 mm steel, inverter based and with build-in compressor. The inverter based are much more compact and lighter, but with more electronic parts that potentially could fail. Build-in compressor is also nice, but then again I do have a compressor already (actually several) so I don't need this, again more parts which could break down. For portable use it is pretty handy though. Price is a little above 1000 USD.

There are pictures of cuts done with the plasma cutter on www.elkjaer.dk

I don't have any past experiences with plasma cutters, but did a little research before buying. As I said before I'm really happy with this one, it is a big help. I don't really like working with angle grinders in tight spaces.

Brg,
Karsten