I'm finally ready to buy a plasma cutter. I want to be able to use it to cut by hand and use it with a CNC plasma table i have yet to build. I've have settled on the hypertherm powermax 45 but have now have a question. I called a local dealer who has very competitive prices and he said that to run the machine torch with this machine is not as simple as just swapping out the hand torch. He alluded to a machine interface that was also needed in order to use the machine torch with a CNC control. He quoted me a price of $1500 for the Powermax 45 with a 25ft hand torch, but almost $2500 with the machine torch and no hand torch! does this sound right? I had planned on buying the plasma with the hand torch and then getting the machine torch when I finished building the table. Now I'm wondering why the machine torch set up nearly doubles the price. Is this correct? Please clarify what I need to use a hand torch machine with a CNC table.
thanks