Plasma cut aluminium: what UK home reviews show

You have a length of aluminium sheet for a tray, or a 3 mm stainless bracket, and the amazon.co.uk bullet grouped stainless, aluminium and copper in one line beside a mild-steel millimetre. You want to know whether a plasma cut aluminium job at home matches the 12 mm or 16 mm figure in the title.

In the eleven inverter cutters in our plasma cutter comparison, the reviews that succeed are mostly mild steel sheet. Stainless appears in a few measured notes. Aluminium appears in one sentence with no thickness. Copper appears as a torch that caught fire. Products Compared read those listings and the UK review texts for this set in October 2026. We did not cut metal in a lab. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

In short

A plasma cut aluminium job in this set is one Reboot 45 A review: aluminium sheet was handled, with no thickness. Stainless notes run from 2 mm sheet to holes in 6 mm. Keep a 16 mm title on the mild-steel line.

The listing names the metal

The eleven pages are Reboot, SPRIGHOLLY, PLASMARGON, Haxiaoer and SUSEMSE, from £67.83 to £199.00. They are air plasma cutters. Foster's buyers' guide treats conductive metal as the class, and input amps as the limit on thickness. R-Tech's how-to prints a lower clean cut on stainless and aluminium than on mild steel, on R-Tech's own machines. Those guides are not a cut test of these ASINs.

The bullets name stainless, aluminium and copper beside the mild-steel millimetre. The PLASMARGON PLC65, ASIN B0G4R3RX84, at £129.99, prints a 16 mm clean cut and names those three metals. That listing has no UK review line, so the 16 mm figure is the seller's sentence. The Reboot CUT60 title states a 12 mm clean cut, and a bullet adds a 16 mm maximum.

Clean cut and severance are different jobs. When a listing prints both, plan around the lower figure, on the metal that figure was written for. The PLC65 gives you no review to pull a lower number from. Where a review exists, use the thickness the reviewer measured.

Plasma cut stainless steel, where a review measured it

On the Reboot CUT60, model RBC6000-29UK, ASIN B0DTG34CST, reviewers report holes in 6 mm stainless and several metres of 2 mm stainless. That file is the longest in the comparison: 4.6 from 28 reviews, rank 1 in Plasma Cutting Equipment, at £132.04. The stainless lines are holes, and thin sheet over a distance. This file leaves 12 mm and 16 mm stainless undescribed.

The Reboot non-HF 40 A, at £199.00, has a buyer who cut 5 mm stainless for a barbecue bracket and said the arc did not touch the metal. That page lists a 12 mm clean cut and severance up to 25 mm, which the reviews do not report. A bullet says it runs on a UK 13 A socket with no blown fuses; a review says fuses kept blowing above 22 A.

The SPRIGHOLLY CUT60L PRO, at £159.99 and 4.0 from 7 reviews, drew a messy edge on 3 mm stainless at a default of 15 A. The reviewer suspected the cut wanted more air and more current. The listing states a 10 mm clean cut and 16 mm severance, and it asks for 0.4 MPa and 60 L/min from a compressor that is not in the box.

Plasma cut aluminium, where the evidence is one sentence

A plasma cut aluminium claim in this set is one review. On the Reboot 45 A, model RBC4500LPRO, ASIN B0G4PZGN1Z, at £103.67 and 4.5 from five reviews, one buyer says aluminium sheet was handled. The same review puts mild steel at 6 mm clean, 10 mm smooth and 12 mm near the limit, with a non-touch start on rusty plate. It gives the aluminium no millimetre and no edge description. Five reviews is a short sample, and one buyer said it was too early to judge.

The listing is already untidy on mild steel, which matters before you treat it as a plasma cutter for aluminium sheet. One bullet prints both a 16 mm clean cut and an 8-10 mm clean cut, plus 16 mm severance, and there is no duty-cycle line. Air is a compressor you add, at a minimum of 6 bar (90 PSI). Aluminium has no thickness band of its own here.

These cutters use compressed air. Engweld's FAQ says hand plasma usually needs air. None of the eleven listings specifies nitrogen, argon or a mixed gas, so this page will not add one. Cut a short strip of the same sheet, below the headline current, with the earth clamp on bright metal.

Copper, and the review that says stop

A SUSEMSE review says the torch caught fire on 5 mm copper. The SUSEMSE LT55, ASIN B0C61S56PB, is £99.99, with 4.1 from 34 reviews, the largest count in the set, and a 55 A high-frequency title. A long file can still hold a serious fault. Set the torch down where it cannot scorch the bench, unplug the machine, and leave the next piece of copper alone.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you 30 days to reject faulty goods. The file has no second copper review with a clean thickness, a current or a finished sheet size. A busbar or a flashing planned because the bullet names copper sets aside the only measured outcome. If you still need the part, a fabricator with a machine specified for that thickness is the next step.

Leave Stahlwerk's millimetres on Stahlwerk's page

Stahlwerk UK's CUT 50 Pilot is a different machine: 50 A, high-frequency pilot ignition, 230 V, a stated current of 15-50 A, and a stated weight of 8.0 kg. That page gives mild steel ST37 up to 14 mm, stainless (labelled there as V2A/V4A) up to 8 mm, and aluminium up to 5 mm. The 7-year warranty on STAHLWERK machines is handled by Norsemen Safety, 71 Sydenham Road, Belfast, BT3 9DJ. None of these eleven ASINs is that cutter, and the warranty stays with Stahlwerk.

Five millimetres is a published ceiling for that model, and aluminium is the smallest of the three figures. It does not rank the CUT 50 against this amazon.co.uk set. Pasting 5 mm onto a Reboot, SPRIGHOLLY, PLASMARGON, Haxiaoer or SUSEMSE would invent a spec those pages do not carry. Stahlwerk's CUT 60 Pilot on the same site is 400 V three-phase. Fitting that supply, if you do not already have it, is an electrician's job.

Buy the Stahlwerk range when you want that table. Stay with the review thicknesses above when you buy from this set. The plasma cutter buying guide orders the checks for supply, air and the lower millimetre.

What to set up before the next sheet

Cut a strip of the same metal and thickness before the real part. Mild-steel scrap will not show you 3 mm stainless or aluminium sheet. Start below the headline current, and change one setting at a time, with air at the pressure that listing prints. Every cutter here needs an outside compressor, and no box includes a helmet.

Touch start needs bare metal at the tip and at the earth clamp. A pilot arc is the feature these listings use for paint, rust and mesh. The millimetres stay with the listing and the reviews. Painted sheet, or an earth that would land on a coating, belongs on the pilot arc or touch start page.

HSE treats plasma-cutting fume as hazardous under COSHH. It has not been classed as carcinogenic. Paint, grease and zinc coatings make a harsher fume, and Engweld says zinc fume from galvanised steel needs serious filtration. Remove coatings where you can, and stop in a closed garage with no extraction. Use a welding filter. These listings print no shade number. More of that duty is in plasma cutting fumes.

For stainless in the 2 mm to 6 mm band, the longest file is the Reboot CUT60. If the metal is mostly painted and you will not grind a start, the pilot-arc Reboot 45 A is the file that mentions aluminium sheet. Who should skip which machine is on the cutters with the longest review files in this set. Hand production plate and structural work to a fabricator.