Anyone have a Torchmate plasma table?

Just wondering if anyone here has a torchmate plasma table and actually likes it. I run a torchmate growth series 2x2 at school and thought it was total garbage until I convinced the shop supervisor we should actually use the water table. Still haven't figured out how to get the perfect settings other than do a lot of little test cuts. I am always hesitant to train new people on it because the machine doesn't have a home position so it is very easy to crash.

Also, the torch mount it total garbage and has no good way to adjust it. So we are just stuck with a crazy angle on the edge of all of our parts unless we make a custom adjustable mount, which further reduces the already small work envelope of the machine.

The shop supervisor purchased the 2x2 growth series with the intent of buying the upgrade stuff to expand it if/when necessary. But when we went to buy that stuff it was all discontinued. Of course the trade in value was absolutely worthless and we would easily spend $10k to upgrade to any version of a 4x4. For a school shop there is no reason. We could outsource any larger plasma cutting needs to a water jet shop for the next 20 years and not spend that kind of money.

So distilled down, your first (and main) problem is the torch mount ?

Your a school, design something, have the machinist students make a new one.

It won't reduce the cut area that much, and now you can square the torch up properly.

Secondly, what do you mean about the water table ?

digger doug said:

So distilled down, your first (and main) problem is the torch mount ?

Your a school, design something, have the machinist students make a new one.

It won't reduce the cut area that much, and now you can square the torch up properly.

Secondly, what do you mean about the water table ?

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Yes, I could pretty easily make a new mount. There is no program for machining here. Just a bunch of machines and students that put forth the effort to learn how to use them. My point is, how does a company as big as Lincoln Electric design something so terrible and get away with charging so much for it?

For years we were not allowed to put water in the water table because it would rust. But most of what we cut isn't very thick so it warps from the heat. One day, after trashing a $35 piece of material due to warping, I decided to stop screwing up parts for no good reason and put water in the water table.Still deal with the crazy angles in the cut, but now the parts stay cool and don't warp. No more pausing the machine and letting stuff cool. The slats that hold up the work piece are rusting, but the table itself is coated and is just fine. The slats are consumables anyway since they get cut up and eventually get so much build up on them you can't get a sheet to lay flat.


Does anyone know if there is a program for laying out parts and generating a good tool path, other than torchmate cad, that will import into the torchmate software that runs the machine? That program is so aggravating and counter intuitive after having used other CAD programs for years.

I know someone with some PlasmaCAM tables that likes the Snap 'N Cut magnetic torch holder. I assume they'll work with a torchmate.

try sheetcam.

Well, now your seeing why Lincoln is dumping them.

I repaired a 5x10 torchmate, and got it running for the owner.

As far as water and rusting, if you keep the water up to, and
even slightly over the part, there will not be any steam,
so the machine ways won't get rusty.
If you run water 2" below the part (to just catch the sparks) you
will get steam all over the place, and rust.

Now this mount problem, why not post a picture ?
The 5x10 I repaired had a solid mount (no breakaway) but IIRC the squareness
could be adjusted.

CAD, I had no problems bringing in .dxf files from AutoCAD, importing only into the torchmate post processor section (adding tool path program)

AFTER I got this one running, I bought a homemade project table, and fixed it.
It runs Mach3 & SheetCam and is much better to work with.

I have a Torchmate table. So far we are happy with it. We have a friend with a Plasma cam, I think it is now where near the quality but he loves it.

Your torch needs to be perpendicular to the table to work correctly. All of the torch mounts I have see have adjustments. Do you have a machine torch or hand torch? A bad nozzle will give you an angled cut too.

I am not sure what you call thick, we cut 16ga to 3/8" AR500 all the time with no warping but we do have a water table but we keep the water about 1/8" below the part. It might be you are either cutting to slow or with to little power forcing you go to slow. Heat affect zone should be pretty small with plasma at the right speed.


As for rust in a water table I have been using this (I didn't invent it just follow it):

Here's the recipe for home-made PlasmaQuench

1/4 pound of sodium nitrite powder ($15/pound)

1 teaspoon of Physan 20 ($8/8oz bottle)

1 oz Ultramarine blue food-grade dye ($5/oz.)

Mix well, treats 75 gallons of water.

digger doug said:

Well, now your seeing why Lincoln is dumping them.

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I am not sure where you heard Lincoln is dumping them. They just bought them so they are in the process of rebranding them. At least as far as I know.

jmanatee said:

I am not sure where you heard Lincoln is dumping them. They just bought them so they are in the process of rebranding them. At least as far as I know.

Click to expand...

A complete overhaul of the machine, brought in another CNC plasma table manuf under their
wing, rebranding that as "torchmate"

digger doug said:

Well, now your seeing why Lincoln is dumping them.

I repaired a 5x10 torchmate, and got it running for the owner.

As far as water and rusting, if you keep the water up to, and
even slightly over the part, there will not be any steam,
so the machine ways won't get rusty.
If you run water 2" below the part (to just catch the sparks) you
will get steam all over the place, and rust.

Now this mount problem, why not post a picture ?
The 5x10 I repaired had a solid mount (no breakaway) but IIRC the squareness
could be adjusted.

CAD, I had no problems bringing in .dxf files from AutoCAD, importing only into the torchmate post processor section (adding tool path program)

AFTER I got this one running, I bought a homemade project table, and fixed it.
It runs Mach3 & SheetCam and is much better to work with.

Click to expand...

I always tried to keep the water as high as possible, but the slats that are in there right now keep the part at the very top of the water. If anyone walks by and bumps it at all water spills on the floor. I do want to replace the slats and chose the same thickness material, but a different width. No idea if it got ordered or not. Just regular stock that we cut on the iron worker (if it decides to work on that particular day. Intermittent issues are so fun to troubleshoot). The different width would mean that when they are put in the table the width is now the height from the bottom of the water table to the bottom of the part, meaning we could use less water.

I would love to post a picture and be in the shop machining a new mount, but it is summer now and the shop is closed until August. Definitely a project I want to complete when I get back there.

I can easily import DXF files into Torchmate 4 or Torchmate CAD, but neither recognize some very common things. Such as if you model half of a part and mirror it. The DXF will show it all as one, but when imported into any torchmate program you only see half. Pretty much any feature like mirror or array where you are copying geometry does this. It is easier to just throw something on the mill and use the bolt circle pattern on the DRO.

We have both a machine torch and a hand torch. The machine one is always mounted to the gantry and we just unplug it and plug in the hand torch when we need to do any cutting off the table.

A break away mount sounds like a good investment, especially when the machine has no true home position or limit switches. Though it looks like the controller may be able to have some connected easily. No idea if that would require a firmware update on the controller though. I've always wanted to hit the home button, but have been afraid to since it could run at a fast feed rate and crash.

How beneficial is it to have a computer controlled Z axis? The one on the machine is just a threaded rod with a crank on it to manually adjust the height. I used to have to practically stand over it and manually adjust the height during the cut to compensate for warping. Now it really isn't an issue with the ability to keep the material cool.

I will definitely look into sheetcam. I have heard of it before, but haven't really looked at it all myself. Software purchasing is kind of tricky at the school, especially with all of the budget issues in Illinois and the proposed budget cuts for higher education across the country.

I want to make some plasmaquench but we need to order the materials. May be justifiable to prevent rust though.

Are there any suggested starting feed rates and settings for on the plasma cutter? I understand that every machine is different, but having somewhere to start would be really helpful. I generally try to get scrap of the same material and then just do a bunch of test cuts until I find something that won't take forever to clean up on the grinder. The shop air is regulated to 90-100 PSI most of the time. I think it comes in at about 110. I think the machine is a Lincoln Electric Tomahawk 1000 with standard (not fine cut) consumables. Max current on the machine is 50 amps, it is usually around 35 for most of the cutting we do. Most of the material we cut is around .1 to .25 inches thick, usually the cheapest steel we could get.

rbent said:

I know someone with some PlasmaCAM tables that likes the Snap 'N Cut magnetic torch holder. I assume they'll work with a torchmate.

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Check out Plasma Torch Protection System | Boss Manufacturing - Home we use them and there great, direct bolt on Torchmate.