Starting to get serious about the FL 300 II

Well, as the title suggest.... I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on an FL300 II. Just about the minute I think I'm going to stay with Tormach, a little voice in my head says... "but yeah, you could do that, however for just a little more $$ and you could have twice the machine"....

Anyone with recent (say last three to six months) on purchasing a new machine? Wish SinArms would do an update on how things are going. My hope, he's to busy cranking away on production and all is great with his replacement FL300 II.

Later,
Awall

Awall- if you are eve in the L.A. Area you are welcome to check mine out! Or if u would like me to run a part for u - I'd be happy to. So far loving the lathe. To be able to turn it on and have accuracy better than 0.0005 is awesome!

SIn arms is probably too busy to hang out here... he has a six month backlog of work from when his previous machine wasn't functioning right.

Hopefully eventually he will see daylight again.

Smithy finally added a product page for the FL300-II.

https://smithy.com/automatecnc/flatb...enter/fl300-II

They also got rid of the lathe that was sin_arms nemesis (TC1417), and added a couple smaller lathes... which ironically share the same set of photoshopped photos. The "slant bed" LTS5 picture is for the flat bed lathe LTF5, with the "LTS5" label (and the automate label) photoshopped on to it.

Just keep in mind the specs listed on the website are not correct. The dimensions are 81x57x70 ish. Plus the weight is 1600kg. The spindle taper is A2-5 Not 2-4. Also spindle is 5hp.

- I would like to join in the discussion here, or at least lurk and observe/learn -
--- I am in Oklahoma (rural central part) - Agriculture / Oilfield very prevalent
--- I have no experience with a lathe, but I sent my son to school to learn to run one. (I am pretty handy at figuring things out).
--- I have a metal fabrication shop - CNC Plasma, Waterjet, Bandsaws, Iron-Worker etc... (Family shop, me and my sons).
--- I have a Tormach PCNC 1100 (have used it some, not a lot).
--- My shop has 3 Phase power (480 volt /400 amp service).
--- I was raised in an agricultural environment (on a farm)
--- Educated in Electrical/Electronics
--- 30+ year career in I.T. / Automation (Still have an active successful IT company).
.................................................. .................................................. .................................

Recently, we have been making a product that requires several pieces of Pipe (Schedule 80 1"), End faced to be square, I.D. bored to 1.00" Cut to length (1.5) ... and other similar.

It is also very common to have someone call at an odd hour, or on a weekend with a broken / bent shaft from some farm machinery ... I have spent a good part of my life making these types of repairs with an Oxy/Acetylene torch, angle gringer, hammers, cheater bars etc.

I have been thinking lately I would like a lathe... I like to invent things, I also have random needs for parts made from one, and I think I could market the service a little (not high production). (and I really like cool toys).

I started looking at the Tormach lathe (reviews and videos), and that lead me here (and a few other threads). "sin arms" distress thread about "should have bought a tormach" was my first introduction to the FL300 ... I have read your thread here, and watched a few videos... The price tag appears to be at the upper edge of my toy budget, but not completely unreachable.

- I look forward to reading the details of other folks experience, and getting some good advice here!

herrmc -
As a happy FL300II owner for about 6 mos I am happy to answer any questions. I was torn between the Tormach and automate at first, but if you compare the specs the automate is so much more for the $. You get a complete lathe, w/ collet closer, enclosure, turret, etc.
If you watch a tormach lathe move, you fall asleep, it's so slow and painful to watch the "rapids" It sounds trivial at first, but can really add up. The horsepower and precision of the automate is so much better as well. The Tormach you have to calibrate the X diameter every boot up, as their limit switches are notoriously inaccurate. On the automate you just turn it on and make parts. Also, you don't have to assemble the automate, the tormach comes in pieces and some folks have not received them all at the same time.

I will say that tormach pathpilot controller is so easy to use. That's what I use on my mill. The industrial grade siemens control on the automate isn't hard, but not as easy as PP. Having a turret and a huge gang plate is pretty sweet you never run out of X real estate. At first I was really hoping for a slant bed, but to be honest now, it doesn't seem that important. The chips fall down into the massive casting and don't collect around the spindle or table.

If you have any questions or want to see specific pics of mine, let me know!

BoneDoc,
Thanks for the response, I have started reading information on it (on smithy site now). It is pretty evident that it is several notches above the quality of the Tormach.

My Tormach PCNC 1100 originally had the Mach controller, it went bellyup AWOL about a year (or more ago)... we recently ordered the Path Pilot replacement, but have not installed it yet. My CNC plasma table uses a variant of the LinuxCNC (like PathPilot)...

- I have the 4th axis, and the tool changer on my 1100 ... but I really not not used it very extensively.

I am sure I will come up with a lot of questions on the FL300-II ... but I will try to read the information before firing off too many questions.

Regards,
Curtis

What options did you add?
- Which ones did you choose not to?
Reasoning for the choices of options (pro/con)... which are "must haves"?

(I tend to buy everything including the kitchen sink... always afraid I am going to miss out on something)

I didn't really add anything, as when I got mine it wasn't even listed on the website. I have the turret, and 5C collet. I would have them add the 3 jaw chuck (I bought my own as bison was blowing theirs out for $210).

Depending on your situation the Siemens 808d advanced may be worth it w/ live tooling. Supposedly the basic version can do C axis indexing but I have been struggling to get smooth operation out of it. I did rig up a diy live tool but haven't played around too much w/ it. Check out this video https://vimeo.com/205985245. This is obviously light years ahead of the tormach capabilities.

I don't know if they have a parts catcher option, but my diy solution is this: Attachment 368378

You may want to add some more gang tool holders. It comes w/ 2. But if you do a lot of drilling, more is always better, especially w/ so much room on the table!

My FL300II is 10x the machine the talon 1417 is in every aspect, Still working on my back log that was caused by the 1417 but the fl300 II has been going great. I'll try to answer any questions I can

Any comments about the FL300-II VS the HAAS TM-1 or TM-2 ???

Depends on what you want a lathe for one might be suited better than another. If you want to do repeat jobs with multiple tools and a collet chuck I would go with the FL 300 II, if you want to do one offs and have a tailstock and don't mind sitting there changing tools go with the haas

any chance you'd show how you have yours set up for doing barrel work? and or any feature you would like different if you did it over?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ncohio

any chance you'd show how you have yours set up for doing barrel work? and or any feature you would like different if you did it over?

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For the time and money that I have in figuring it out I'd rather not share. It's been great for me so far though.

I was just browsing through the site when I saw your posting. I am getting ready to purchase the FTL5 lathe. I plan on using it for woodworking including small bowls, vases, key ring bodies, etc. It is an overkill since I am just a hobby person, not a business, but, I want to just program and make parts for XMAS and other gifts.

Are you still happy with it?