Plasma cutter at lidl

Went to Lidl this morning to get a Plasma Cutter. No luck!! First store said they had not received a delivery, so went to a second store and got the same response. Phoned customer service and told they were not aware of any distribution issues. Left my e mail and they will get back to me.

Has anybody managed to get a unit today?

Alan.

Yep, I did.

6 in the basket at 10.30 am.

No £162 of council tax to pay this month so I figure its cost me less than nowt! Couple of jobs to do on a farm so I might even get paid too.

The little 12V, 10 mm capacity drill driver set for £59.99 looks very impressive value. I like the idea of being able to pull the chuck assembly off for lightness and compactness. I have all shall ever need in that line but for afirst time battery person its excellent.

Clive

This one has a blue (and grey) round pin plug.

Just an empty bin with a price tag at my store so assumed all gone from an early delivery as per initial post but maybe just not delivered as per Alan's post. Would they put the price tag on though if no stock?

None delivered to the stores in Sheffield today unfortunately.
I'll try Glossop tomorrow, assuming I make it there with the wind.

Bill

There's a video on YT where a German guy takes the cover off this model and discusses the components inside, his general concensus seemed to be for a budget machine it was pretty good, so I decided to get one.

I went to Wigston LIDL first, they didn't know anything about it and no sign it had ever been put out for sale, gave their helpline a call and their policy is that they do not give out any information as to which stores have certain items listed on their website.

In an age where we're charged for plastic bags to save the environment, telling customers to aimlessly drive around and just hope where they go has some in stock seems ridiculous.

I nipped over to Hinckley and they had loads in stock, haven't tried it yet but the build quality seems pretty decent.

Grabbed the motor before the missus headed off to work and my local Lidl had a couple for £150

Opened it up and it has a 16A plug

It's from the "performance" series of gear which is their line of good quality tradesmans tools, my cordless drill was the same and the build quality is a step up from the usual basic green stuff, they are made to be worked

They'll be on ebay for 250 plus within a week or two

Edited By Ady1 on 18/02/2022 09:35:29

What type of 16A plug, an industrial round 3 pin with blue body or "Euro" with 2 pins and side contact for earth?

Its the 3pin

A chap on utube has already swapped his out for a 13A plug and it runs fine but I may get an adaptor to ensure the 3 year g'tee is ok

Opened it up and it has a 16A plug

You didn't need to open it up to find that out - the remaining one at my local Lidl had printed on the outside of the box "fitted with an industrial 16A plug" with a picture of a round blue plug.

Don't have a need for one, so moved on past. Did (eventually) manage to get one of the £20 5" angle grinders last week, though.

Nigel B.

Hmm,
As stated previously, running these off a 13A socket, by changing the plug or using an adaptor, is illegal.
So is using it in a residential area.
Enforcement is virtually non-existent though and you will probably never know who you are causing interference to.

Only one at my local store. Box was empty before 08:01h ‘cos it was already in my grasp.

I had considered Henry’s Eastwood versa cut, but without a guarantee of it working after being stored long-term, I opted for this one - lower quality but guaranteed to work without changing caps and FETs.

One word of caution for users - run it from the mains, not from a small generator.

I checked late on Wednesday evening and saw the price label on the shelf, so knew exactly where it was going to be found. I made sure I was the first in line by queuing ten minutes before opening time.🙂

Picked one up first thing Thursday morning in Droitwich store, by 2 pm all gone. Yet to unpack and play. It is not illegal to sell for use industrial equipment or then to use on domestic, as such. A grey loop hole. Think of the number of people who do not add filters to retro installs of inverters, again specified to the upper emissions curves and non studio grade LED strip lights. Luckily most of the kit we use has high immunity covering up for our wide disregard for exact compliance.

I'd like to see cites for Robert's assertions.

In the meantilme it wont affect me for two reasons:-

1) Our Lidl in Rugby didn't have any.

2) My single phase welders already run from 16A BS4343 sockets in the workshop. There's a 32A one available for the old Oxford Bantam in the garage if I ever wanted to use it when SWMBO wasn't running the heat treating pottery kiln.

I do like the idea of a plasma cutter with a built in compressor. I notice that it also seems to have a spacer/trolley included for the torch, which is a good touch.

Peter R.
It IS illegal to use it on a domestic supply bceause it does not meet the electromagnetic emissions standard for domestic environments. Even the manual says this, but not in plain language.
You are unlikely to see any enforcement though.
My main issue is with Lidl sellin these in a domestic retail outlet.
I sked them abou this but have had no response......

Robert.

Robert,

CISPR 11, which I assume this has been tested to ( not a motor so not CISPR14) gives two classes. Class A suitable for use in all establishments other than domestic building. The argument would be if a workshop is a domestic building.But typical a distance from a domestic dwelling or outdoors since a portable unit with in-built compressor, and so could be argued that unlike a microwave, in class B, that likely to be installed within the dwelling and there therefore class A. ( I don’t intend to use this in my living room.) the source of supply not necessarily relevant. Mixed sites, developments have a supply, no distinction as to mode of operation from that supply. So it maybe illegal to operate IN a domestic building, but not ON a “ domestic “ supply. The manufacturer is ask to document the class and implications, which they have “ but not in plain language “ You May have a more update copy of CISPR 11, am I missing some change? All change again on product safety when we get to the end of the and need UKCA?

I went into my Lidl on Thursday to find only one left. Lifted it into my trolley and then decided that the lump was too heavy. Put it back on the pallet and another guy immediately grabbed it and carried it to the checkout. Now in my 80++ years, do not think it would be used much so I hope that the new owner is in greater need.

I would still like to hear from buyers about the performance of the machine

Peter R.
According to the manual https://www.usermanual.uk/parkside/ppsk-40-a1/manual?p=85 the Parkside PPSK 40-A1 conforms to EN55011 (basically same as CISPR 11) Class A. Class A devices are heavy industrial and are not allowed to be connected to the same supply as any domestic premises. So unless you have your own feed to the electrical substation or transformer, seperate even from your own house, It is technically illegal to use it.
The manual also references IEC 61000-3-12 which relates to harmonics. The manual states the cutter is only compliant for harmonics if the supply impedance must be less than 0.024 ohm. Well actually the manual is obtuse and refers to the short circuit power as 2446.7 kW miimum. From this we can calculate the current (>10,000 A) and impedance. This is a totally unrealistic impedance for a domestic supply (except perhaps for some parts of London which have a grid distribution scheme) If the cable from the main feeder in the road is more than 30 feet there is no way you can reach this low an impedance.
The harmonics generated can damage other equipment on the supply as well as causing interference.

It is at best poor practice by Lidl to sell this in retail outlets. The warning and conditions in the manual are meaningless to the average purchaser.

Robrt G8RPI.

Edit, a more appropriate EMC standard would be IEC 60974-10 but that still references EN 55011 and the cutter would still be class A. It probably would not meet all the requirements of 60974-10

Edited By Robert Atkinson 2 on 20/02/2022 16:45:08

It lifts home metal cutting to a new level

Ady has it - but just to a different level compared to the previous (several?) threads on Lidl plasmas, which may only have been 30A machines? I’ve not yet taken mine out of the box, but one issue might be that of dry air required for the cutting part of the machine.

For what I want (rather than need) it will make some jobs that much more inviting. The compressor (for me) was an unnecessary expensive addition. But there again, my main compressor is not exactly ‘portable’.