[drieslaas]

I am in the early stages of planning a cn plasma.
One important question: Do I absolutely need a THC, or can I get away without it?

[plain ol Bill]

Can you get by without one - yes. Can you do consistent good cuts without one - no. Get a THC and avoid problems and non satisfactory results.

[plasmamatt]

I wouldn't even want to try and cut without torch height control. It is very common for steel to warp when it is being cut. I've seen steel warp as much as 1/2". The torch height control will compensate and prevent issues.

[flyinwilly]

It's virtually impossible to get quality cuts on thin material (< 10GA) without THC. If you are planning on using Mach3 for your control software, then look at CandCnc. Tom makes a variety of systems from the LCTHC, a low cost, barebones but very good THC, to systems that do everything but the drawing. Just depends on how much you want to spend.

Willy

[datac]

I'm in the "depends upon" camp.... What is your cutting intentions ? What exactly do you want to make ? Thin, uneven sheet metal will demand a THC whereas if you cut materials that are .060">> or say .090" and thicker, that can be cut very successfully without THC. I do it all the time.

The next level of depends is how accurate you can build your machine to be ? How PARALLEL can you get your material to lay with the torch plane ? I've seen large format machines demand THC on ALL thickness of materials simply because the machine was set up completely crooked having the table plane completely wacked compared to the torch motion plane.

Obviously, a smaller work area is easier to make true. I have a 30" square work area portable machine that is very true, and because I generally do not cut thin sheet, works just fine without THC. I apply all the other typical requirements though, such as finding the surface and setting the proper pierce and cut height on the fly.

Your best option may be to build your plasma dream incrementally. Build yourself a very accurate, parallel and true machine with a properly powered Z axis (and zero height detection) so it is there and as such, eventually useable by a THC when and IF you desire it. No harm in that. You may get along just fine until you feel you need it.

So the truth in the matter is NO, THC is not just an "automatic requirement" for CNC plasma you have to throw money at just because its there..... Like anything else, it DEPENDS on what YOU are trying to do with the machine.

[agelkom]

I am in the early stages of planning a cn plasma.
One important question: Do I absolutely need a THC, or can I get away without it?

Yes, absolutely you need, because we produce THC :-) visit our we page Capacitive Sensor
If you dont want to use THC you must protect your torch with magnetic breakaway, AGELKOM News Page

Best regards,
Argun Gucdemir
Agelkom Ltd