[Wog]

Available as a pre-order on the Tormach website. ATCs now Available for Pre-orders « Milling Around

[racingdave]

wow... $4200 is a little more than i'm willing to spend on this.

i'm wondering how many people are going to buy one??

[sansbury]

Seems like a pretty reasonable price for what it is, if it performs reliably as the rest of their hardware seems to.

There are very limited choices if you want a mill with an ATC. Basically, it's this, a Haas TM-1 or mini-mill which is pushing 30K, or a used VMC. You can buy two 1100's for the price of one Haas, and the used iron is a crapshoot unless you know what you're doing. And if something breaks, the Tormach is likely to be the cheapest to fix, possibly by a large margin.

I suspect there are a lot of Tormach owners who will buy this without a second thought to the price. $4k is real money but there are a lot of wealthy guys out there with all kinds of toys in the garage. There are a lot of hobbies where $4k is chump change... those guys will buy this just for the "cool!" factor. And I suspect there's plenty of them to go around.

The other side will be serious operators who frequently make small runs but don't have the situation to justify a VMC, whether it's space, cost, whatever. For them, this is a big productivity add, since you can walk away from the mill for as long as it takes to make a part, or more if you can fixture multiple parts on the table. For a guy who mostly makes one-offs, the value is much lower.

Third thing, this creates "option value" to choose Tormach over Syil, Sieg, Mikini, and all the other mini-mill guys out there. Even if you don't buy the ATC right away, knowing it's an option to add on later makes you more likely to choose the Tormach in the first place.

[cheetahcnc]

Congratulations Tormach :cheers:

[David Bord]

I was on the beta program and I cant tell you how much I love running the ATC. Its been so nice to start a program and just go about doing other work in the shop until a part needs to be flipped or changed.

David

[BlueFin]

wow... $4200

I know a guy who just spent $4750.00 last week on a paint job for a really old car.

[howecnc]

I will be saving up for one. I can't wait.

[UWP_Wes]

I wish they would have made this for the BT30 spindle with true spindle orientation. It would not be that hard. Use the old shot pin method since Mach is not able to handle feedback.

Funny the economy of machining. There is definitely a hobby/professional division. I just bought a straight VDI live tool unit for a lathe that cost more than two entire Tormach machines.

[mal97]

I just finished with the vfd upgrade and was going to upgrade to the power draw bar this year, but it currently shows up back ordered on Tormach's site.


I will probably upgrade to the tool changer within a year or so. Not in the budget this year. Its definitely more of a want than a need for what I do. But as someone else said, its just so cool.

[saabaero]

I have a question for any of the beta testers... Have you experienced any interference issues with the vise, part, 4th axis, or table shields especially when having longer tools or drills in the tool changer?

[R.DesJardin]

I have a question for any of the beta testers... Have you experienced any interference issues with the vise, part, 4th axis, or table shields especially when having longer tools or drills in the tool changer?

vise- No
part- No
4th- not recomended to use.
Table sheilds- sorry I threw those away long ago and made an enclosure, if you want to machine with plenty of coolant then a enclosure upgrade is neeeded. IMHO.
Not sure what you call long? 1/2" drill bit in the 1/2" TTS drill chuck no problem, so far. A tall part may be an issue, but then you could just modify the code for clearance for that tool.

[saabaero]

R.DesJardin,

"vise- No
part- No"

Great!


"4th- not recomended to use."

Wonder if 4th axis can be rotated 180 and mounted on right side of table if needed.

"Table sheilds- sorry I threw those away long ago and made an enclosure, if you want to machine with plenty of coolant then a enclosure upgrade is neeeded. IMHO."

Agreed!

"Not sure what you call long? 1/2" drill bit in the 1/2" TTS drill chuck no problem, so far. A tall part may be an issue, but then you could just modify the code for clearance for that tool. "

I guess 1/2" drill bit in 1/2" TTS chuck would be adequate. I'm just concerned about having to worry about tools in the changer crashing into things during machining since the ATC is mounted right next to the spindle. I have already had a couple tools where I had to move my tool change position up to keep the tool from hitting the part prior to machining.

Thanks for the information!

Have you encountered any other issues that wouldn't be readily apparent?

[R.DesJardin]

Wonder if 4th axis can be rotated 180 and mounted on right side of table if needed.

I guess 1/2" drill bit in 1/2" TTS chuck would be adequate. I'm just concerned about having to worry about tools in the changer crashing into things during machining since the ATC is mounted right next to the spindle. I have already had a couple tools where I had to move my tool change position up to keep the tool from hitting the part prior to machining.

Thanks for the information!

Have you encountered any other issues that wouldn't be readily apparent?

If you don't need a tail stock I think moving to the right side would be an option. I'm not sure if the servo motor will clear the cabinet though. But as far as tools it would work.
The tool changer is really out of the way when machining and tool changes are up out of the way, at least for me.
The ATC is the second best upgrade I've done, of course the Power Draw Bar is #1.
Remeber time is saved because you don't have to at the machine for tool changes which allows me to be doing other things like assembly work or second ops. So then I can get twice as much done, well maybe not quite twice as much.

[MichaelHenry]

wow... $4200 is a little more than i'm willing to spend on this.

i'm wondering how many people are going to buy one??

That actually seems like a pretty reasonable price to me, especially compared to rolling your own.

I'll buy one if enough paying work develops to justify the cost.

Mike

[twocik]

Think those prices are bad, look up how much Haas stuff cost.... (6k for just a probe) Don't forget you'll also need to purchase a PDB, so it's like $5400 after all said and done. However to be able to walk away from the machine to do other things is worth every penny, not to mention no more nasty coolant that drips, splashes on you from every tool change.

[Wog]

Update:
Tormach has a couple of "Installing the ATC" videos on their website.
Installing the Tormach ATC « Milling Around

[g29cc]

Very cool.

I would like to see some videos of the ATC in motion.

Congrats to Tormach for coming out with the ATC option.

While a little pricey in some peoples eyes, as mentioned, to the more than hobbyist machinist, this could be a god send.

When thinking about the price, you have a Tormach already without a ATC. Would you buy another machine to get a ATC, or spend the $4200 to get the setup on your current machine you already have and know.

Todd