[Apples]

Has anyone out there got a "torchmate" system that they are using, or know of someone with one? How are they? Are they worth risking running a business with them? Was it easy to use? Reliable? etc Please let me know......

Thank you.

Peter

[kanankeban]

I also thinking in buying one from torchmate, or just building a clone,...I already located almost all the components from internet sources :banana:
It will be nice to have some opinions before deciding going this way
Regards...
Hector

[DSL PWR]

They use flashcut for their drive. I've read good things about them. I want to build one, but I will probably use Mach2 with a breakout board, and THC from Bob C. I'll use geckos or rutex for the drives. I'm looking at One CNC for the cad. My cousin retro fits industrial cutting tables around Portland and strongly recomends a servo drive over a stepper system. This is because of the speed you can get off of a servo and maintain position at speed. We have to remember that plasma cutting goes faster than routing.

[braidmeister]

I looked at the TM before buying a ShopBot plasma CNC. The TM was Aluminum framed and flimsy in my opinion. I know that it would not be able to stand up to the abuse of throwing a shet of 3/8" steel on it like my steel framed SB. Aluminum pits...badly!

Seems like a good outfit, the owner is nice, but it just wasn't beefy enough for production work IMHO.

-Brady

[kanankeban]

I looked at the TM before buying a ShopBot plasma CNC. The TM was Aluminum framed and flimsy in my opinion. I know that it would not be able to stand up to the abuse of throwing a shet of 3/8" steel on it like my steel framed SB. Aluminum pits...badly!

Seems like a good outfit, the owner is nice, but it just wasn't beefy enough for production work IMHO.

-Brady

I plan on throwing to the table 6x20ft 1/2" and 3/4" steel sheets...I think either one the TM or the SB will break apart if I dont go easy (chair)

[kanankeban]

They use flashcut for their drive. I've read good things about them. I want to build one, but I will probably use Mach2 with a breakout board, and THC from Bob C. I'll use geckos or rutex for the drives. I'm looking at One CNC for the cad. My cousin retro fits industrial cutting tables around Portland and strongly recomends a servo drive over a stepper system. This is because of the speed you can get off of a servo and maintain position at speed. We have to remember that plasma cutting goes faster than routing.

We have to talk I just planning same stuff as you...do you have a msn messenger account we can chat?
Regards..
Hector

[freak_brain]

A couple of problems that I noticed with these machines.

1. they drive with a rack and pinion on one side of "X" axis.

2. the linear slides on X axis looks kind of cheap

3. looks hard to load because all four corners come up above the table to support the rail

just a few observations

Allen

[braidmeister]

I'd be wary of any machine that uses extruded AL on a plasma cutter. I don't like the idea of ANY cnc machine that you can bump into and mistakenly move the table...The only way my machine moves is if you jack it up in several locations and have wheels and a football team to help. My frame can probably support a truck on it...the TM doesn't seem robust enough....and they use teeny steppers on it.

-Brady

[freak_brain]

Braid,

To support the weight using steel and making it heavy duty is a good idea. But on the moving axis on a machine that has no side pressure (like a milling machine would have) I would think using aluminum is the way to go.

Allen

[kanankeban]

A couple of problems that I noticed with these machines.

1. they drive with a rack and pinion on one side of "X" axis.

2. the linear slides on X axis looks kind of cheap

3. looks hard to load because all four corners come up above the table to support the rail

just a few observations

Allen

Hi Allen,
1.- driving a axis with a rack an pinion is a problem? Could you explain, because I plan to drive my machine this way....
2.- the linear slides, in the torch mate machine are cam followers they dont nead manteinance and are rated at very high loads...the idea of this guys at torchmate are to provide a cheap solution that can compete with expensive linear slides, I know there are better ways to drive a axis put in a expensive way...think in this I'm trying to build a 20ft x axis table...that will mean thousands of dollars for a dual vee rollers and rails, or THK slides instead of a couple of hundred dlls...
3.- could you explain on this...looks hard to load, do you mean the material to cut? I'm planing on using a electric 3 ton hoist on a crane.
My table will be quite sturdy, very heavy structural steel....with a very light gantry...do you see any problems if I do this setup this way?
Regards...
Hector

[freak_brain]

Hello Hector,

First of all I'm not trying to be critical of another persons work. I'm sure their machine works fine.

I do understand that cam followers, stepper motors and using a rack and pinion are cheaper but with anything in this world you get what you pay for. Driving from one side with a rack and pinion, seems to me, to not be the best solution. Even with a rack and pinion one could drive it in the center to prevent the torque of the motor from twisting the rail along "x" axis.

looks hard to load the material that's going to be cut. Since the material to be cut sets below the top of the legs (by quite a bit, looks like 1-2 ft) you have to load it between the legs. If a person drives it in the center below the table you simply move the machine to one end, which exposes the whole table, and load the material.

One last note. I am making a plasma/router the will cut 4X4. The ballscrews for it will be $100 for X and Y axis. That's with two ball nuts for each. That seem pretty reasonable to me. The company, roton is listed below.

http://www.roton.com/web/index.jsp

a 5/8 dia. ball screw (rolled) cost 8.95 per foot and the ball nuts are $20 each

Again.....I'm not trying to be critical and I'm sure that all this stuff works fine. I wanted my machine to last a long time and cut very accuratly. Maybe one could accomplish that with the other items. I've never used them so I'm not sure of it.

Allen James

[braidmeister]

Allen,
Generally speaking, rack and pinions work very well on a plasma machine. My machine uses 2 racks and 2 motors on each X rail. One thing you might want to check is top speed of your machine in the X&Y directions. Depending on your torch amperage and nozzles, you may not be able to move that ballscrew fast enough to cut thinner materials. Your only saving grace at that point would be if your torch could use Hypertherm FineCut consumables, which don't require as much speed in thin materials.

-Brady

[DSL PWR]

The cam foller setup should work fine. The TM table is driven from both sides. There is a shaft running across the gantry. If you have an overhead hoist the table configuration won't be a problem. How would one even support a ballscrew over 20'? It would be hard to load material with a center rack. The rack would need to be mounted above the table if you want to use a water table.

[freak_brain]

well, maybe I am wrong then. sorry for the confusion

[kanankeban]

Allen,
Generally speaking, rack and pinions work very well on a plasma machine. My machine uses 2 racks and 2 motors on each X rail. One thing you might want to check is top speed of your machine in the X&Y directions. Depending on your torch amperage and nozzles, you may not be able to move that ballscrew fast enough to cut thinner materials. Your only saving grace at that point would be if your torch could use Hypertherm FineCut consumables, which don't require as much speed in thin materials.

-Brady

Hi,
I'm planning to get a real expensive plasma...Does someone knows if its really good for that kind of money? is a 4070 High Definition Plasma from Hypertherm...I'm trying to save as much I can building the table because the high price tag of the plasma...I'm making this investment for a contract to cut by the specification. Well all spoken..here's the question the fastest feed rate for the plasma is 380IPM and the slower 30IPM, almost all the time I'll be cutting at 90IPM, so the question is regarding speeds...Do I need to make sure the machine will be capable of traveling at 380IPM or with 100IPM i will do it? And If I have to travel at 380IPM will steppers do the job, or should I go directly to look at servos?
Regards...
Hector

[kanankeban]

The cam foller setup should work fine. The TM table is driven from both sides. There is a shaft running across the gantry. If you have an overhead hoist the table configuration won't be a problem. How would one even support a ballscrew over 20'? It would be hard to load material with a center rack. The rack would need to be mounted above the table if you want to use a water table.

yep I have a overhead crane... :cheers: nice thing to have around in the shop...

[kanankeban]

yep I have a overhead crane... :cheers: nice thing to have around in the shop...And a Laser to cut the clone parts of the TM :banana:

[braidmeister]

You should be fine with steppers. Look for something in the 400-600Oz range and gear it accordingly. I don't recommend servos on a plasma machine because there is a higher tendency for interference. Be sure to use foil/shielded control cables to minimize any interference with the steppers.

Sounds to me like you will be cutting in the 26ga to 3/8" thick range of materials if I read your speeds right. You shouldn't lose any steps if you get your ramping dialed in, and keep the gantry light. Since there is no real cutting force on the tool, I doubt you will lose steps...no advantage to going to servos.

-Brady

[kanankeban]

You should be fine with steppers. Look for something in the 400-600Oz range and gear it accordingly. I don't recommend servos on a plasma machine because there is a higher tendency for interference. Be sure to use foil/shielded control cables to minimize any interference with the steppers.

Sounds to me like you will be cutting in the 26ga to 3/8" thick range of materials if I read your speeds right. You shouldn't lose any steps if you get your ramping dialed in, and keep the gantry light. Since there is no real cutting force on the tool, I doubt you will lose steps...no advantage to going to servos.

-Brady

Brady,
Do you know where I can get some more detail on that interference you mention with servos, has this happend to you? is it a well recongnized problem with servos in a plasma table?
do you reccomend any foil/shielded cable in particular, and where I can get this?
I'll be cutting primarly 50% of the time 1/2", 30% 3/4", and 20% 1"
The thing I like most of the TM design is the lightness and that everything is easy to get, just the steel plates, but those are not a problem for me I have a 2000w laser i can use to cut them.
So will it be possible to get some 300oz range steppers belt reduction them to get more torque? well my doubt here is, will steppers in this torque range are capable of providing the apropiate RPM to make a timming belt reduction and increase the torque, will the RPM after the reduction wil be capable of giving me the IPM cutting speed I need?, and what reduction ratio is the most common in this application?
Regards...
Hector

[braidmeister]

Hector,
I don't have sites for the servo/interference issue. There really is no need to run servos on a plasma CNC because you are well within the torque range of NEMA 34 steppers and don't have any loads applied to them like a CNC router would (no lost steps). You can run them directly on a Bishop-Wisecarver gear track with a 25 tooth gear. No reduction belt-drive necessary.

I bought my machine turn-key and hanven't had the need to buy shielded cable yet. I'm sure a search on Thomas Register would give you a whole list of suppliers for shielded motion cable etc.

-Brady