new to cnc

[BauschTowing]

hello everybody. i'm the crazy guy that just buys something and jumps into the deep end without knowing anything about it!

i have been attempting to design and build a tire shredding machine for the past year or so off and on. that being said, i have hand cut a ton of 1/2 steel with my (lovely) harbor freight special plasma cutter. (titanium 65 amp)

i was at the point i needed more precision than following wooden templates by hand, so naturally i wanted a cnc for my plasma cutter. i nearly jumped onto the Arcdroid bandwagon, but then a nice (i hope) Torchmate table popped up on facebook marketplace close enough to me, and for a price i was happy with.

fast forward to purchasing-
the guy i bought it from obviously bought it, and never set it up or used it. he was a busy dude. that meant he was no help to me in getting me started and he didnt even really know what he had.

now i am the one that doesnt know what i have.(torchmate 2? torchmate 3? something else???) and for the past couple days, i have been trying to accumulate enough knowledge to make my machine work! which... is why i come here to the experts of the plasma spider.

so far, i have the table in my shop, i have kind of figured out what some of these boxes are for, and what they do. (i think i have a few different controller options???)
i have hooked up the "blue screen" AVHC and have been able to jog the torch height z axis up and down.
i have dowloaded and installed Torchmates CAD/CAM program (version 9 student), but i dont have a dongle... so that might not work??

CAN SOMEBODY ON THIS SITE PLEASE PITY ME, AND GRACE ME WITH AT LEAST SOME BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT I HAVE/ NEED TO DO??? PLEASE???

what should i hook up? (the big controller box has the correct pug ins for the current servo setup)
what program should i be using? i dont mind having to pay for it if needed.

attached is a picture of all the stuff i have (except some extra servos and wires)

20250527_174650.jpg

[adbuch]

Welcome aboard! We have some members experienced with the Torchmate tables. I would recommend posting your questions in the Torchmate section of this forum. The TMCad edu version is for students, and you will only be able to save in the .edu format - which will not allow you to export dxf or other vector file formats for cnc cutting. The guy you purchased the table from should have had a copy of TMCad along with the dongle. If you contact Torchmate/Lincoln directly with your table serial number and purchase receipts, they may be able to supply you with a replacement dongle for a price.

I don't think you necessarily need to use the TMCad program to run your table. You can design using other software programs like Inkscape, Fusion 360, etc. (both free programs) and do your cam/post processing (create your cut paths and g-code) with SheetCam ( I think current price for SheetCam is around $150 for a perpetual license.

Steve is the member I am thinking about who knows quite a bit about Torchmate. I think if he sees your post in the Torchmate section - he will chime in.

Good luck!

David

[BauschTowing]

Thank you very much for the info. I will post it there and hope Steve sees it!

[adbuch]

Thank you very much for the info. I will post it there and hope Steve sees it!

[weldguy]

Does your picture show the current state of everything?

Have you been successful in jogging the X and Y axis at all?

[SegoMan DeSigns]

Lot of ??? here.

The multiple control box's and extra motors lead me to believe this had been upgraded at some point in time. The lack of a dongle is a problem, contact the previous owner and see if he can locate it. If he can not you either buy a new one or or go to SheetCam. SheetCam has more post processing options but might be a tad more difficult to set up (IDK I have not used S C on the T M)

Once you have determined what equipment is needed, clean all terminals with a contact cleaner then use some die electric silicone to seal them on final assembly. Give the wire to terminal a slight tug to check connections as I have had problems with under-crimped plugs on my 2x2 table.

My 2x2 table with it's red box controller w/ LED's for each channel (similar to your lower left silver box) is running Ver 3.0.19 software, it does not have the THC you show so I can not help you there.


I just checked and the TM Forum is down:

https://www.fabricationforum.com/

Here is some links off their main site:

https://torchmate.com/cad-cam-7-8-9

https://torchmate.com/support/growth-series

Do some searching on that site for answers to your questions, as always YouTube is a great source of how to video's

Here is the story behind the original TM prior to selling out to Lincoln:

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/foru ... te.387482/


Good Luck,

Steve.

[BauschTowing]

So it turns put, torchmate/ Lincolns help line is very... helpful. They got me all set up, looked at my.pics and told me.what to do, provided downloads, ect.

I have my machine homed, and moving around. Working on adapting the mount to fit the handheld titanium 65 torch I have.

Should be doing test runs tomorrow hopefully

[BauschTowing]

It was a torchamte 2 cnc with upgraded pro series controller. No dongle needed. Running on torchmate 4 software (for now)

[adbuch]

It was a torchamte 2 cnc with upgraded pro series controller. No dongle needed. Running on torchmate 4 software (for now)

[weldguy]

Well thats a pleasant surprise im sure! Good news, let us know how your first cuts go.

[SegoMan DeSigns]

It was a torchamte 2 cnc with upgraded pro series controller. No dongle needed. Running on torchmate 4 software (for now)

How are you CAMing your files prior to cutting them then?

Glad you got it going..