Black Friday Deal got me :)

The IPTM-60 is non-HF which implies blowback type.
The naked tip does not lend itself to ohmic sensing because the tip is shorted to the work lead clamp until it blows back, You can test this with a multimeter on tip to ground clamp. The solution is to use an external probe probably lowered with an air ram. QT plasmac supports offset probing for  this but more inventive folks lower a circular probe that encircles the probe tip.

i'm not sure how fancy this is going to get i am looking at cheap steppers and drives to do this cheap THC might be basic too i have to look into that part more while i am collecting parts. the whole THC is new to me so i have some learning to do for sure on that part. i made a breakaway torch holder a while back and it fits this torch so that's about as far as i am right now.

Rod  i did some digging and found out that this Machine has been done with THCAD before. the person that did this has some YouTube videos and i found this image on here. this is basically the exact same setup i was going to do minus the THCAD since i was not sure on that part; I watched the videos and in the video he said the THCAD-300 would have been a better choice with this machine. the only thing i noticed was that the THCAD-300 seems to be for only scratch start HF machines? this machine has a 1:1 ratio but has the blow back start so which would be better the THCAD-2 or the HTCAD-300 ?
 

machinedude wrote:

the only thing i noticed was that the THCAD-300 seems to be for only scratch start HF machines?

Scratch start has no HF nor HV pilot arc, it needs to be dragged on material to fire.
THCAD 300 would work fine for your plasma (i use them on HF/HV start despite warning all not to do that, it just needs to be wired in the right spot), and so will any THCAD, just get 2 of 1MOhm resistors rated at 2W or 5W and wire one on each arc voltage wire.

"The 300V version of the THCAD has all input divider resistor on board and can connect directly to the plasma voltage of touch start type torches only."

this was the section of the description on the Mesa site that confused me.

Means not for use with HF/HV pilot arcs.
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NOT advice:
The thing is it can be used but requires open the plasma source and wiring it at the rectifier output. Any place else risks letting out the magic smoke. I have THCAD 10 and 300 wired to HF start, probably over 10 or 15 of them.