Tormach's Latest

Robots will soon be among us!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFjR_Kr6JOE

Teach it to play ping pong like a kuka!
Be real cool to have the same style wireless control as a kuka has! "they kind of showed a clip of a pp one"
I always wanted a couple robot arms hanging from the ceiling in my shop. Following me around and help out.

I see videos of robot arm mills on tracks making molds and sculptures from soft materials using Sprutcam.
Possible application for it beside works space automation.

Anyway kind if figured this was going to be available. Recently one person here integrated an arm as tool changer.

Thanks for the link!

Instead of robots Tormach needs to work on bigger better CNC machines. 5th axis and horizonals before robots . A robot to a DIYer is simply a mere TinkerToy.

(;-) TP

5th axis, yes. Bigger/better machines? Meh. I'm sure there is a market for them but for me, as much as I'd love faster speeds, more spindle hp, and bigger working volumes than my 1100 affords me, a machine capable of those things is likely to be out of my budget, and too large for my space. Frankly, I'd be happier to see Tormach provide some real documentation of things like the ATC interface so the DIY'ers don't have to work so hard to roll their own versions only to have them bricked with the next pathpilot update. That's not a criticism of Tormach, just a desire of mine.

I do think the robot is super cool and had started to draft an email to be considered for the beta program. Sadly, my personal projects are too small/simple to utilize a robot in any meaningful way and my professional world relies on artisans and craftspeople so adding that kind of automation will only hurt us in the market place if word got out that we have robots doing the work.

From the outside looking in, there does not appear to be any "real" effort toward designing/improving exisitng product offerings. I see the robot as merely a "possible next trend" they are hoping to capitalize on. The big difference being the pcnc crowd has little to no use for a robot. Very odd, Tormach's recent product decisions has basically relegated the years (think loyal customers) of pcnc 1100's to junk status. There has never been the amount of pcnc's on the used market as recently. There is a reason, and that crowd will think twice before thier next purchase, if at all.

All products are eventually made obsolete, some by their replacements, others are simply gone forever. Being an 1100M owner I foresee a few more years of incremental enhancements to my machine before tormach moves on to the next model but even now the rate at which new addons are being introduced is slowing which doesn't surprise me at all. Eventually you run out of things you can do with an existing package or set of technology. Sure, you can upgrade the internal tech to allow for the new bits but at what point does that become so costly for both the manufacturer and the end user as to be pointless for both? Expecting any manufacturer of any product to support it indefinitely is setting oneself up for disappointment, I say that as both a manufacturer that has had to talk to angry customers about a product that is no longer available and as a consumer who has been frustrated by the lack of support for an old product. Hell, a big part of why I bought my machine is to future proof myself because of my one garage toy that is already suffering from zero aftermarket support and rapidly dwindling manufacturer support. I'm not happy about it but it's 20 years old and a niche market product so I knew it would happen.