Hello Everyone. This is my first post so go easy, lol.
At this time I am planning to purchase a Torchmate 1 or 2 system before the end of the year. I am in the research mode right now, and I am already finding that most of my questions are eventually answered on this forum if I search long enough. I do have a specific question though for anyone of you who own or are familiar with my particular Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 80XL machine. Can it be used for the plasma unit on a TM 1 or 2 system ( I hope, I hope,) , or will I need to trade it off and buy another machine. I picked it up used a few months ago, thinking that I would eventually get a table , but at that time I did not know about the different type's of starting arcs used on plasma machines. I am hoping that I can just add a machine torch to it and that it will work. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I'm not personally familiar with the unit, but my guess is it would be a high frequency start type cutter? Pretty much any plasma cutter can hook up to our system if you can get a trigger loop from it, however interfacing it and making it work is another story. If it was high frequency we would recommend shielding and grounding for just about everything in the system, just to keep it from interfering with the components. Also the Height Control would be another aspect, can we receive the raw arc voltage from the unit, as well as will the torch fit in our height controller mount?

In the end it may be easier to get a Cutmaster 81 and then use the 80xl as a hand unit.