Hi All,

So, my Tormach Setup saga continues (it's been over a year now, and only 2 parts have been made... for various reasons, but mostly because Tormach designed things just didn't ever fit together, or were damaged in the end). After I got my machine's full enclosure re-designed and installed (yeah, I got one of the earlier SN's I think... it didn't quite fit together as advertised, plus it needed lots of help with the accessories not having a place to go), the lubrication system rebuilt, the leaky stand re-primed, repainted and completely seam-sealed, the power drawbar rebuilt, the limit switch dogs modified and properly adjusted (apparently they don't do this at the factory), accessories installed, some of the customizations installed, and much of the crappy accessory wiring re-designed not to electrocute me, I finally had the chance to do a precision leveling, now that it wasn't moving for a while.
What did I find out? My base casting is likely warped, sometime after it was aligned at the factory. It's pretty sad... no real projects have been done on her, and Tormach's suggesting a column and head stock shimming.

At least the torsion isn't that bad... but my machine will never be able to achieve the out of the box accuracy others have reported here through precision leveling and shimming alone. Plus, since the torsion on the base has to be counteracted with torsion from the machine's mass, stand and machine base bolts, I'm guessing my Y-ways will never run fully flat, without sending the machine for re-building (if it's even worth it). There's a little hump left in the middle of the ways, like you'd see if you were to untwist a curled ribbon, for example. It's not causing that much accuracy variation... the worse I get is 0.0025"/12" away from perfect XY to Z perpendicularity, but the fact that it will change based on Y-position isn't fun. Then, the spindle will need re-alignment in 2-axes to get the tram on par (it's about 0.0035" in 7.5" now in two directions).

Please, could someone give me some good news and tell me that there's hope to tune-up my Tormach even further? Honestly, I'd like to get a new machine, but who knows if they'll go for that... especially since it's been a while since the warranty expired.

-Mike