Considering buying a Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3

Hello.

I need a small cnc milling machine for the design office I am working in. We are primarily going to mill out molds in aluminium for injection molding of plastic.
I found this Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3 at LittleMachineShop, LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Machine CNC, Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3.

So my questions is as followed:
- Is this a good and precise machine?
- Can I rely on it to deliver good machining everytime?
- Is it durable?
- Is there other places I can buy it cheaper?

Thank in advance for your reply!

Best Regards,
Håvard K, Norway

Hi Hårvard,

The answers are:
- yes
- yes
- yes
- no

You can get some background if you read the threads on this Forum.

Have you been here:

1100 Personal CNC Mill | Tormach Has Affordable CNC Milling Machines

Phil:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by havardak

Hello.

I need a small cnc milling machine for the design office I am working in. We are primarily going to mill out molds in aluminium for injection molding of plastic.
I found this Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3 at LittleMachineShop, LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Machine CNC, Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3.

So my questions is as followed:
- Is this a good and precise machine?
- Can I rely on it to deliver good machining everytime?
- Is it durable?
- Is there other places I can buy it cheaper?

Thank in advance for your reply!

Best Regards,
Håvard K, Norway

---

If you are making molds, you will probably be using small bits. If so, consider the 770 instead of the 1100. It has a faster spindle, which will make it a better machine for this sort of job.

Frederic

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by havardak

Hello.

I need a small cnc milling machine for the design office I am working in. We are primarily going to mill out molds in aluminium for injection molding of plastic.
I found this Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3 at LittleMachineShop, LittleMachineShop.com - Milling Machine CNC, Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3.

So my questions is as followed:
- Is this a good and precise machine?
- Can I rely on it to deliver good machining everytime?
- Is it durable?
- Is there other places I can buy it cheaper?

Thank in advance for your reply!

Best Regards,
Håvard K, Norway

---

The answer to your last question: You can buy a cheaper machine, but you can't buy a Tormach cheaper.

Just remember, "you get what you pay for".

Hi Harvard,

I posted a short review of my 770 here:
TormachTOC
I discuss the reason why I went with Tormach. I think when you buy a machine in this price range, you need to be ready to have some minor problems with them. At this price, they cannot check that everything was made correctly in the chinese factory and once in a while you may get a bad motor or something not wired correctly.
But unlike other brands, Tormach will send you replacement immediately, at no cost and help you to go through the replacement. They also offer what are probably the most reliable machines in their class. So you are relatively unlikely to get a machine with problems. That is also partly why they can offer such a great after sale support, they made sure it does not happen too often.
You pay more than all the other brands for it but in my opinion they hit a sweet spot between precision/relialability and price. Plus it is not much more expensive than the alternatives (like Syil,Novakon, Smithy, Mikini)

My personal experience is great. My machine performs great and I love it! I had only very minor problems (read my website for the details) I would go again with Tormach if I had too, I just would not spend that long to make a decision!

Good luck!

Christian

I agree with everything stated here. Im going on my 6th year with my Tormach 1100 and consider it one of the best purchases of my adult life.

Tormachs services and support is outstanding. They are knowledgable, and just decent people to work with.

Im on an upgraded Series I, the Series 3 is just an outstanding machine. Our work just purchased one for a lab based on my recomendation and was able to check it out. Really nice machine...

David

You can buy them cheaper, you just have to look around and wait. People die, upgrade, or just sell their machines all the time.

If you get lucky you can get a used one with low hours, for a low price. I kept an eye on craigslist for about a month and got my 770 for $6k.

I understand why the 770 is a good choice for you,but be aware that it runs on 110 volts where the 1100 runs on 220-240. I am not sure what supply you have in Norway but that certainly helped me make my decision as we have 240 volts here in Australia, i know I could have got a transformer, but I like plug and play.
Perhaps we may one day get a high speed spindle upgrade?
Will

Thank you so much for great response.

We are also looking at SIeg KX3 or KX1. Have anybody any experience with theese machines? I havent found any treads about Sieg here on cnczone.

Best regards Håvard

I'll say just three words, "BUY THE TORMACH"

Here is a review of the Kx3. Unless you can get it for much cheaper, I would not even consider it. Probably a good machine but certainly not as good as a 770.

Search this forum for Sieg (and Seig)

General Metal Working Machines - Page 2 - CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net!

Phil:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by havardak

Thank you so much for great response.

We are also looking at SIeg KX3 or KX1. Have anybody any experience with theese machines? I havent found any treads about Sieg here on cnczone.

Best regards Håvard

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by havardak

Thank you so much for great response.

We are also looking at SIeg KX3 or KX1. Have anybody any experience with theese machines? I havent found any treads about Sieg here on cnczone.

Best regards Håvard

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Man, do your research! Being around this website for approx 6 years, Ive learned that the tormach is in a completely different class than Sieg.

With all the stuff that can be wrong, or can go wrong with a CNC machine, I would buy the best engineered mill I could afford. I didnt know this then nearly as well I as I do now.

Im just happy I went the Tormach route. Take the time to ready the Tormach whitepapers on why they designed the mills they did and made the compromises they did.

Then go to the other companies sites and do the same if said type docs even exist. If they dont exist... man be careful!!

David