All,

I have a TM2 and a customer that wants some work done that involves cutting some pieces from 20 gauge steel. Cutting the shapes is no problem, but the work also requires some fairly precise 1/8" holes for riveting. I am finding that my Thermal Dynamics A60, running at 40A does not want to make such perfectly round holes. Part of the problem is that at 1/8" there is no room for a lead-in, so the holes include the pierce point. Consequently, the quality is not up to that needed for riveting.

So, I want to add a drill to my Torchmate 2.

I have the router z-axis, and I have the plate marker. This leads me to two considerations:

1) The plate marker is not all that great, but I was considering re-purposing the pneumatic down-axis by attaching a pnematic drill.
2) The router works well, so perhaps I use it. The trouble is that the TM2 is not designed to have both the router and plasma torch attached to the gantry at the same time, so I would have to fabricate some sort of alternative bracket (similar to the way the plate marker is attached).

Does anyone have any thoughts on the issue, or ideas on how to attach a drill?

Also, any thoughts on how to use Torchmate CAD/CAM to produce parts that include drilling and plasma cutting?

Thanks.

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