[Don Clement]

That's great. The only thing missing now is the PRICE.

Thunderous silence.

[Don Clement]

Tormach mentioned optional pneumatic closer for their CNC lathe. I have been using a Royal pneumatic 5C closer on my manual lathe. One of the reasons for using the pneumatic closer is the ability to dial in the closer clamping force using a differential air valve. When holding thin walled Delrin,Turcite plastic and even aluminum parts in a 5C collet, excessive clamping force can distort the part. An example is shown below of two 3/16” diameter Delrin parts that were held in a 5C collet. The part on the left with the distorted diameter was held in a 5C collet using the pneumatic closer with pressure set around 90psi. the part on the right was held in the same collet only the pressure was set to 20 psi. Its hard to easily adjust the collet clamping force using a lever type closer.

Also note the through hole in the Royal pneumatic closer rear cover. The Royal closer did not come with a through hole for some unknown reason. I machined a through hole in the rear cover plate right though the WARNING label. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAaoHX9KiWY
I hope tormach doesn't go the route of no through hole in their optional pneumatic closer.

Don

[MichaelHenry]

That's great. The only thing missing now is the PRICE.

From the blog entry:

"We’re not releasing pricing yet, nor taking advance orders."

and

"Stay tuned, as we will be posting more frequent SBL1012 updates from now until the end of the beta period."

Based on the above, I'd guess that they haven't established pricing yet and won't be able to until concerns raised during the beta have been resolved and production costs are finalized.

Mike

[samco]

Another update on tooling

SBL Lathe Update 2: Tooling Options « Milling Around

[BAMCNC.COM]

I'm officially out - got a GT27 for a steal (YAY... No Mach 3)

[Steven673]

I would guess (having no inside information) that they set it up similarly to the Hardinge HLV and it's ilk-- the inside of the spindle is ground to 5C dimensions so no adapter is needed.

[Don Clement]

What is the expected spindle TIR?

Don

[Steve Seebold]

What is the expected spindle TIR?

Don

When do you sleep? All your posts seem to be after midnight. Mine too.

[Don Clement]

When do you sleep? All your posts seem to be after midnight. Mine too.

Weren't you out watching the Perseids?

Don

GRISSOM
Jimson Weed. "Dry as a bone, red
as a beet, blind as a bat, mad as a
hatter."

WARRICK
Really, cite your sources.

GRISSOM
Internet insomnia.

[Spinnetti]

WOW!

Over ten-thousand hits on this thread. I can't believe it. When I firsts posted it I was only wanting to get some idea where this Tormach Lathe project was at because at the time I had what I hoped would be enough money to buy one of Tormach CNC Lathes.

It looks like it will eventually turn out to be an excellent machine but, I just couldn't wait any more.

The only way I could afford this or any other CNC Lathe now is if I win the lottery or if a long lost relative with lots of money dies and leaves me some of that money. That's not likely to happen any time soon.

I'll pray about it and see what the Good Lord has to say on the matter. You just never know. He may just drop a wad of cash in my lap unexpectedly.

MetalShavings

Well you could buy my Grizzly 12x37 (which I bought new) That I converted to ballscrews/DC servos/Camtronics 4 axis controller, so I can free up some space to get the Tormach one

[sansbury]

Well you could buy my Grizzly 12x37 (which I bought new) That I converted to ballscrews/DC servos/Camtronics 4 axis controller, so I can free up some space to get the Tormach one

Funny you say that. I've been debating what to do in lieu of the Tormach lathe. I'm leaning towards doing a conversion on a Griz 10x because it would be short money and I have some suitable motors and drives laying around, and might even be able to reuse the ball screws from my Sieg X2 mill conversion that the PCNC 1100 replaced. Cost wouldn't be a lot more than the ~1500 to get the lathe to my loading dock, and some time.

The thing I'm weighing is that for a "real" CNC lathe to be worthwhile to me, a bar puller is a necessity, as is a gang plate or turret. Otherwise the productivity just isn't there to justify spending $5k+. I've looked at used turning centers, and buying something that isn't a clapped-out POS, plus tooling, plus rigging and 3-phase installation, there's no question I'm getting into the price of a new Tormach lathe, which I'm guessing is going to be somewhere roughly around what the 1100 costs. Like the 1100, this lathe is looking to be the same sort of Goldilocks "this porridge is just right!" compromise machine for what I want to do. Because I suspect a lot of other people will feel that way, I suspect it could be at least a year or more before I could get one into my shop. So I need something a little better now to tide me over, unless I stumble across something rare like a Hercus compulathe or bizarrely cheap but good Haas TL-1.

[Spinnetti]

Funny you say that. I've been debating what to do in lieu of the Tormach lathe. I'm leaning towards doing a conversion on a Griz 10x because it would be short money and I have some suitable motors and drives laying around, and might even be able to reuse the ball screws from my Sieg X2 mill conversion that the PCNC 1100 replaced. Cost wouldn't be a lot more than the ~1500 to get the lathe to my loading dock, and some time.

The thing I'm weighing is that for a "real" CNC lathe to be worthwhile to me, a bar puller is a necessity, as is a gang plate or turret. Otherwise the productivity just isn't there to justify spending $5k+. I've looked at used turning centers, and buying something that isn't a clapped-out POS, plus tooling, plus rigging and 3-phase installation, there's no question I'm getting into the price of a new Tormach lathe, which I'm guessing is going to be somewhere roughly around what the 1100 costs. Like the 1100, this lathe is looking to be the same sort of Goldilocks "this porridge is just right!" compromise machine for what I want to do. Because I suspect a lot of other people will feel that way, I suspect it could be at least a year or more before I could get one into my shop. So I need something a little better now to tide me over, unless I stumble across something rare like a Hercus compulathe or bizarrely cheap but good Haas TL-1.

I'm right there with you... there's a heck of a deal on a Mazak (I think) on ebay, but 3phase, 20hp etc, etc... I'd love it, but couldn't get through the door, and that's a lot of power, 3 phase... Mine works ok, but will take some more work to be just right, including better ball screw end blocks, installing the spindle tach (I have it, just not installed yet) and a few this/that.. If I remember right, the bare lathe was over $2k, and the 4 axis servo controller/servos and ball screws another $2k, plus all the belts, brackets, machining and work to make it go. There's no free lunch with this stuff. If you have lots of time, making your own stuff is fine, but I'm not into machine making. I got a new Grizzly mill and lathe, and converted them. Sold the mill and got the tormach, and plan to sell the lathe and get the tormach when it sells. I'm into having a matched set I guess!

[tbaker2500]

An update from Bob Warfield-
Tormach's New CNC Lathe: Trip Report - CNCCookbook CNC Blog CNCCookbook CNC Blog

[Philbobb]

I hope so. "Torlinuxcnc" doesn't fall off the tongue nearly as easily as "Tormach"

Randy

Well...

"This is a departure for them, since their mill runs Mach3–the lathe runs LinuxCNC."

Maybe they'll come up with a name that falls off the tongue?

[Don Clement]

Bob Warfield wrote: “ These machines are capable of very nice surface finish…”

Good surface finish is no surprise being that Tormach took the Monarch 10 EE approach of belt drive spindle with no gears from a large variable speed drive smooth motor such as the 3HP 3-phase VFD motor Tormach is using. BTW the Monach 10 EE does have back gears for low speed torque but put the back gears down with the motor, surface finish killing vibration from the back gears is isolated from the spindle by the belt drive.

Don

[sansbury]

I'll be very interested to see what they've done with LinuxCNC. Bob's post suggests they've done some custom GUI work, wondering if they scratch-built a full GUI or just modified Axis and NGCGUI.

[samco]

I really doubt that the 'mach' in 'tormach' is for mach3...

sam

Well...

"This is a departure for them, since their mill runs Mach3–the lathe runs LinuxCNC."

Maybe they'll come up with a name that falls off the tongue?

[zephyr9900]

I really doubt that the 'mach' in 'tormach' is for mach3...

But for the lathe, Tormach could stand for "Torvalds machine".

Randy

[samco]

Awesome!

But for the lathe, Tormach could stand for "Torvalds machine".

Randy

[BobWarfield]

I'll be very interested to see what they've done with LinuxCNC. Bob's post suggests they've done some custom GUI work, wondering if they scratch-built a full GUI or just modified Axis and NGCGUI.

I believe they scratch built the GUI using Python. It's very clean and nice to use. I will show some screen shots when I get my machine.

Cheers,

BW