When I’m talking about changing a handheld plasma torch to a CNC torch here, I’m talking mainly about the bigger Chinese plasma cutters that run a P80 torch or something very similar. I’m not talking about changing the torch head on the end of the lead. I’m talking about pulling the whole hand torch and lead off the machine and replacing it with a straight CNC-style torch and lead instead.
So the bits I’m talking about keeping the same are the machine-end connections — the on/off switch plug, the pilot arc wire, and the main power and air lead that screws onto the plasma cutter itself.
In other words, the whole question is really this: if your plasma cutter already runs a hand torch, can you swap the whole torch and lead assembly over to a straight CNC torch and still plug it into the same machine?
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. And with these Chinese machines, the answer has a lot more to do with the fittings and wiring on the back end of the torch than whatever the front of it looks like.
If you’re not even sure what torch is on your machine now, start with the plasma torch identification guide first, because that’ll save a lot of guessing straight away.
If we’re talking about a P80 torch or something very similar, the connections are pretty straightforward. You’ve got the pilot arc wire, the on/off switch plug, and the main air lead, which also has the heavy power cable running inside it to feed the torch itself.
And if we’re talking P80 hand torch versus P80 CNC torch, the actual front-end consumables are the same. The tips, electrodes and ceramic cups are interchangeable. There’s no magic difference there. If it’s a genuine P80-style setup, the CNC torch and the handheld torch are using the same sort of consumables at the business end.
So the question isn’t really “will the consumables fit?” and it’s not even always “will the torch physically fit?” If you’re talking about the same sort of P80-style setup, those parts are often the easy bit.
The bigger question is whether your plasma cutter itself can actually run that CNC torch properly once you take the hand torch away. Because once you get rid of the hand trigger, something still has to tell the torch when to fire. Something still has to handle the start signal.
If you need consumables for that sort of setup, the P80 tips, electrodes and cups are here, and they’re the same sort of consumables whether you’re running the handheld torch or the straight CNC-style torch.
Not everyone wants a straight CNC torch because they’re building a CNC table. Sometimes they just want the slimmer straight torch body because it fits into tighter spots than a chunky handheld torch.
If you’re trying to get into an awkward area, blow out some welds, or cut somewhere the normal hand torch body is just a pain in the arse, a straight CNC-style torch can actually be handy freehand as well.
The catch is obvious enough: if it’s a proper CNC torch, it usually won’t have a trigger on it. So if you want to use it freehand, you’ve got to add some sort of trigger switch to the torch lead or the torch body itself.
That’s why you’ll sometimes see blokes use a little external TIG-style trigger switch for the job — basically the same sort of zip-tied switch setup people use on TIG torches. It’s only switching a low-voltage trigger circuit, so it doesn’t have to be anything fancy.
If you want to do that on a bigger setup, this P80 CNC torch is the sort of thing I’m talking about, and the little external trigger switch is here.
And it’s not just the bigger P80-style machines either. The same basic idea applies right down to the smaller Chinese plasma cutters as well.
If you’ve got a machine running a PT31 torch, you can still do the same sort of thing — use a straight CNC-style torch, add an external trigger switch, and run it that way if it suits what you’re doing.
So if you want a straight torch because you’re building a CNC table, that’s one thing. But if you just want a slimmer torch for awkward cuts or tight access, that can be a perfectly good reason too.
You just need to remember that once you move away from the normal hand torch, you may need to sort out the trigger side of it yourself.
If you’re working with one of the smaller machines, the PT31 CNC-style torch is here, and the same little external trigger switch setup can be used on those as well.
This is the bit that matters more than the torch itself.
You can have a straight CNC-style torch that physically fits the machine, has the right lead on it, uses the same consumables and all the rest of it — and that still doesn’t automatically mean your plasma cutter is properly set up to run on a CNC table.
Because once you move away from using the torch by hand, the machine has to do a bit more than just fire when you squeeze the trigger.
A proper CNC-capable plasma cutter will usually have the right control connections on the back of it so the CNC table can tell it when to start and stop cutting. That’s the clean way to do it. If the machine was built with CNC use in mind, life gets a lot easier.
If it wasn’t, then yes, you can still sometimes make it work — but it starts turning into a bit of a fiddle. You’ve got to work out how the torch is going to be triggered, how the machine is going to start and stop cleanly, and how you’re going to mount and control the torch height so it actually cuts properly instead of just dragging along the top of the steel.
That’s where the smaller non-CNC machines can start becoming more trouble than they’re worth for a proper table setup.
If you’re talking about the little under-50 amp machines running a PT31 torch, that’s another thing to watch. A lot of those are not pilot arc. They’re more of a scratch-start type setup, and that’s not what you want for a proper CNC table.
The reason is simple enough. With a proper pilot arc torch, the torch can fire with a gap between the tip and the metal. That’s exactly what you want on a CNC table, because the torch can hover at the right cutting height instead of physically dragging across the top of the material.
With a non-pilot-arc setup, you lose that advantage. The torch basically wants to be in contact or right on top of the material to get going, which is a pain in the arse for CNC work and not really the way you want a proper table running.
So yes, you can bolt a straight torch onto all sorts of plasma cutters if you really want to. But whether the machine is actually a good candidate for a CNC table is a different question altogether.
If we’re talking about the basic generic Chinese pilot-arc torches — the sort of thing a lot of these bigger imported plasma cutters use — then the swap from a hand torch to a CNC-style torch is usually pretty simple as long as the connections on the machine end are the same.
On that sort of setup, you’ve basically got three connections to look at.
The first one is the little two-pin plug that goes into the front of the plasma cutter. That’s the trigger plug. On a handheld torch, that’s what the on/off switch on the torch uses. On a CNC-style torch, you might not have a switch there at all, because the CNC table is meant to do that job instead.
If you’re not using it on a CNC table and you just want to run the straight torch by hand, that’s where one of those little external zip-tie trigger switches comes in handy. They’re cheap, they do the job, and for this sort of low-voltage trigger circuit they’re usually all you need.
The second connection is the one a lot of people think is just the airline. It’s that 12 or 13 mm nut-style fitting that screws onto the front of the machine. Yes, it is the air line — but it’s also carrying the main heavy power lead to the torch inside it as well.
And the third one, if it’s a pilot arc machine, is the extra pilot arc wire — usually a little red or green lead that screws onto the front of the plasma cutter as well.
If your machine has those three connections, and the CNC-style torch you’re looking at has the same three connections on the end of its lead, then yes — in a lot of cases you can swap a handheld torch for a CNC torch, or swap a CNC torch back to a handheld torch, without too much drama.
That’s really the whole trick with these generic Chinese plasma cutters. If the machine-end setup matches — two-pin trigger plug, main air/power lead, and pilot arc wire — then you’re usually in business.
So before buying anything, that’s exactly what I’d be checking: does my current torch have those three connections, does the replacement CNC torch have those same three connections, and if it doesn’t have a hand trigger, am I using it on a CNC table or do I need to add a little external trigger switch myself?
And if your plasma cutter is already chewing through tips or not cutting right in the first place, sort that out before you start mucking around with torch swaps. This article on burning through tips on a 70–110 amp plasma cutter is worth a read first.
