[Tormachmaster]

Are they any good?

[CNC Solute]

I am helping a friend put one together right now. So far the jury is out. the instruction manual sucks. I feel sorry for anyone trying to put one of these together that has no CNC experience. They are pretty good in phone tech support.
Do some research before you buy and ask alot of questions. Most newbies think they can pull it out of the box, plug it in and start burning steel.
I will be firing up the Torchmate today. I will let you know what i think.

[DISCONNECTED]

One of the most important things about doing cnc plasma cutting is how fast you can get your artwork or cad drawing done.The cutting part is easy.Simple shapes are easy,but when you get custom art work or you want to do complicated designs that is where the challenge is.I do a lot of wall art and I like to make my stuff as detailed as I can,so when people see my stuff they say that is beautiful and have to have it,because let me tell you I have seen a lot of metal wall art and it does not impress me at all.It has taken me a long time to become proficient with doing artwork on the computer.

[millman52]

I am helping a friend put one together right now. So far the jury is out. the instruction manual sucks. I feel sorry for anyone trying to put one of these together that has no CNC experience. They are pretty good in phone tech support.
Do some research before you buy and ask alot of questions. Most newbies think they can pull it out of the box, plug it in and start burning steel.
I will be firing up the Torchmate today. I will let you know what i think.

Which TM are you assembling & size? TM 1, TM2, etc.

[CNC Solute]

TM-2 4'x10' table

[ryansuperbee]

Hey tormachmaster. I have a torchmate 3. It's an awsome machine. I built my own steel table for it and torchmate sent the rest. They cut just as good as a $80,000 plasma. My former boss had a high definition plasma, he said he only used it for high definition maybe 2% of the time. Torchmate is a good machine. However, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't buy. My torchmate came fully loaded. Except NO plasma, table or computer included, cost me $15,000. All together for a brandnew plasma, computer and steel was about $20,500. You don't get that much! And to top it off, torchmate buys generic controls and steppers. They just get everything together for you, slap their name on, and then you have a solid days worth of assembly. Now that I see how simple of a setup this is I could have bought everything (the exact same stuff from their supplier!!!) for $8,500. And that would be nicely setup! Hope this helps a bit.

[JerseyBill]

I also have a TM3 and have experienced the same excitement and dissapointment. The upside is that the machine is mostly ready to go "out of the box". So if you don't have a lot of experience building or operating CNC plasmas then Torchmate gets you going quickly. Time is money. I don't know about you but in additon to working a full time job where I put in an average of 52 hours per week I also do freelance work. The CNC plasma table is just one of many tools that I need to use and be proficient at. Researching a CNC build, although interesting and fun, is just not a real option for me. The down side is you are paying a premium for a lot of standard parts. After using it for 3 years, I have discovered where many of the parts came from. Even now that I know that, I still would not have the time to build one completly form scratch. I have made a number of improvements to the basic TM3 so that it would perform better. I agree that the documentation that you get with the machine is lacking in detail. Some of the parts that came with the kit either did not fit or were inaccurate ane required modification. I found this dissapointing for the money that I spent. However, the tech support is quite good. I have never been left completely without an answer on any isse that I have had. Happing cutting and I wish you great success.

[bakerj99]

i agree fully and whole heartedly THE INSTRUCTIONS SUCK and again i say THE INSTRUCTIONS SUCK but on the other hand the tech help is amazing. i just thought that with no cnc experience for that kind of money that there would be more instruction. that is my biggest complaint. my personal opinion is that there should be a manual of step by step instructions to help the over eager from making to many mistakes. and im still finding more and more out every day just from inexperience and egerness


baker

[millman52]

I'm going to start by saying I AM NOT BLASTING TORCHMATE. Just instruction manuals in general. I think most of them are written after all the engineering is done. All the proytotypes are built. & by someone who has no first hand knowlege of "DO IT YOURSELF". & rarely revised.

I think by the time the instructions are written. All the detail has been forgotten. Or it is taken to assumption, that you the builder has some prior experience or knowlege on the subject.

Publications are also expensive to produce. I think that tends to keep them as small as possible, thus leaving out detail.

I recently purchased a Parts & Repair manual for a fork lift I own. Not a reproduction but an official factory manual. The text is adequate. There are lots of pictures that are like horrible photocopies. Many of the pictures are really useless. & it really sucks when the text plainly says refer to illustrastion10.15.2 & it is nothing but a black square on the page. This manual wasn't cheap either. Pretty much destroyed $100.00 after shipping & handling.

It's probably impossible to write an instruction manual that everyone can understand fully. But I agree that most could be better.

I would think that time would be well spent on a better manual rather that having hour after hour of "Free Tech Support" tied up on the phone.

[Suncoast]

Hello everyone. I have been reading on this site for a while and this is my first post. I am on TBN quite a bit but for my needs now this is where the knowledge is. I do a lot of metal fabrication for tractor implements and accessories and something along the line of the "Torchmate" would be of great help to myself. Those of you who say you could get the same parts and build a system yourself, I would like your input on the suppliers and which products to get from them? The suppliers I currently use would probably not be much help for this project. I would appreciate everyone who has some input here. Any advice on the build; I.E. modifications and improvements would also be great help. Thanks much, Gene