The good part of a Torchmate is that it uses conventional motor drivers and parallel port PC interface so you could elect to use some other software controller software (eg MACH3) and take advantage of all the built in plasma feature and lower cost THC options. They of course would prefer you buy into their total solution but at least there are options if you later decide you want something else.
Some offerings like the PlasmaCAM and DynaTorch are proprietary and you have to use their motion software/controller. This may not sound like a bad idea but then you find other third party options closed to you. You live with the features as they are or scrap the machine
It's kinda like buying a car that uses custom sized tires, battery, wiper blades, etc and having no place to get replacements but from the factory. When you only have one source you only have one price. |