[aicomp]

Hi All,

I am new to CNC and I am buying a Torchmate 3 Kit next week. I will not be able to afford the Torch Height Controller right away. I need to know how one is to control the pierce height and then get down to the cutting height without this system. I have a Hypertherm 1250 Cutter.
Thanks in advance for all help.
Mike Pennington

[DISCONNECTED]

Contact torchmate I am sure they will help you.You will need to get set up so you will have an intial torch height control.

[aicomp]

Hi,
What is an initial torch height control?
Mike Pennington

[Mike Stevenson]

The only way is by hand. You manually turn a knob on the tourch holder to adjust the height. Believe me it is a big pain in the butt. Try to get the Torch Height Controller as soon as possible. My friend bought one without the height controller and was not able to do very good work at all without it. To have a CNC machine and have to manually adjust it constantly does not make sense to me.

aicomp,

The height control automatically adjusts the the distance between the tourch nozzle and the material. As you cut some material it tends to bow upwards towards the tourch. You must back the tourch off manually when it does this while the machine is moving. The reason you do this is because the tourch cuts and produces the best edge finish when this distance or gap is maintained at a constant distance.

[aicomp]

Hi All,
I shall get the torch height control asap . I will start building the table and taking pictures. I hope to have the cash for the hieght controller before I finish.

Thanks,
Mike

[Mike Stevenson]

Your Welcome. Advise straight from my heart. If I was going to buy a Plasma Table I would buy it without hesitation. Let me know if you need any help. The Tourchmate phone help was very good for my friend though.

[aicomp]

Hi,
What a great place to be. I have read a lot here on this forum and made my buying decision based on that reading. I hope to contribute in the future as I gain experience.

Mike Pennington

[Mike Stevenson]

I'm looking forward to seeing some cool pics as you progress.

[tack1000]

Hi

Before you part with your money ask them when the manual is ready for the unit. The one on the net is out of date cose it's for the old unit and they tell me its not finished. How the hell can someone sell a unit like this without any writen instuctions. Although I am using mine and figured most of it out I think for the size of the company the fact they don't have all the documentation is a very poor show. I have asked for it but as they have my money now I guess they don't need to hurry until no one buys it any more then they might take notice and hurry up. It's sad realy cose apart from that they have been ok to deal with but I do think this type of thing is overlooked and stands a company with the "just OK" type companies rather than the "real good ones".

Come on guys do yourself a favour and sort the paper work out.

Tack1000

[DISCONNECTED]

What you need for an intial torch height control is a z axis and a floating head design.Pretty much all it will do is touch the torch tip, trip a limit switch an run the torch back up to a predetermined height.Intial torch height control and athc are two different things.Intial means what it means and auto torch height control takes control after the plasma torch fires.

[aicomp]

What you need for an intial torch height control is a z axis and a floating head design.Pretty much all it will do is touch the torch tip, trip a limit switch an run the torch back up to a predetermined height.Intial torch height control and athc are two different things.Intial means what it means and auto torch height control takes control after the plasma torch fires.

Thanks very much for that explanation. I really appreciate you folks and your willingness to help.
Mike

[bakerj99]

i bought the tm3 thinking that the 8"rise would be very handy for forklikt loading but the forks are pretty wide and dont really want to take out the slats to compensate, so if i were in your position i would go with the tm2 and use the savings for the avhc wich you would appreciate more

just my opinion
baker

[aicomp]

i bought the tm3 thinking that the 8"rise would be very handy for forklikt loading but the forks are pretty wide and dont really want to take out the slats to compensate, so if i were in your position i would go with the tm2 and use the savings for the avhc wich you would appreciate more

just my opinion
baker

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. What is the difference between the TM2 and the TM3?
Mike

[bakerj99]

the tm2 uses one motor for the x axis and the tm3 uses 2

[aicomp]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure how well the single motor drive would work over time.
Mike

[Mike@Torchmate]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure how well the single motor drive would work over time.
Mike

The Torchmate 2 is a single motor X axis drive, however there is a driveshaft that goes across to the other side of the table so that it is evenly driven.

[aicomp]

Thanks Mike. That sounds pretty good. I'm about ready to drop the dollar and get my machine.
Mike Pennington