I've been reading up on many of the great threads here about the Torus Pro and Torus mills. These two machines have really piqued my interest.

A couple of questions and or concerns that maybe members here can help me with.

1. The Torus Pro width of 87" I can live with, but the depth of 55.5" is a lot for me. Has anyone taken the electronic cabinet off of the back and mounted it separately? I'm guessing the cabinet is about 10" deep? This mill is HUGE.

2. The Torus has a work cube of 14.75" x 9" x 12.25" XYZ work cube and a table size of 7.8" x 23.6". My small Grizzly G0704 has a work cube of 18 7/8" x 6 7/8" x 11" and a table size of 7 1/16" x 26 5/8". While I can sort of justify that the Torus 9" Y travel and 12.25" Z travel makes up for the loss of 4" in the X travel, I'm having a hard time getting past the fact that the Torus table will smaller than my G0704 table. It really is a shame that the Novakon doesn't offer a larger table for the Torus as an option. The leap in table size from the Torus 7.8" x 23.6" to the Torus Pro 12" x 40" is really enormous; I'm not saying that the Torus Pro table is too large, rather that the Torus table is too small for a machine of this size.

3. What is the differences between the Torus at $6495 and the Pulsar at $7750? These prices are both for stepper axis motors. The tables appear to be the same size, and the Pulsar has larger travels by 1" X and 1/2" Y and 1/4" Z. Both have servo spindles that can do rigid tapping. The main thing I've heard about the Pulsar is the improved chip handling, but this appears to be a function of the optional stand and not in the mill itself. So what does the extra $1255 buy for me other than slightly larger travels?

4. I've also been looking at the Precision Matthews PM-45-CNC. While having a much larger table size of 9" x 32" and a larger work cube of 21.5" x 8" x 16" than the Torus, it also has major shortcomings such as no chip tray, limited RPM of 1950 (3000 rpm with VFD), unknown ballscrew quality, no rigid tapping, and unknown quality control.

5. What is the difference between the Torus Pro and NM-200? Between the Torus and the NM-145?


All of the above mills are turn-key machines. I guess there are a couple of other options for me, but they involve a lot more work.

6. Go ahead and convert my G0704 to CNC. The downside is the time involved. THe upside is that the cost will be very reasonable, and I will have learned a lot about the mechanical and electrical aspects of CNC conversion.

7. Buy an Industrial Hobbies / Machine Tool Warehouse MD-001. This is a hulkified version of the RF45 style mill with a table size of 9 3/8" x 38 1/2" and a work cube of 30 1/8" x 12" x 16". While a great deal at $2500-$3000 (not including shipping or duties), there are not any CNC kits available for less than $6500, although several others have said they will have kits available in the next month or three.

Ideas and/or suggestions?

Titaniumboy