Mike, 2 or 3 weeks. I am still organizing some rigging details, and it is conceivable it might slip, but they're motivated and the machine looked ready to go when I was in Wisconsin.
Cheers,
BW
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What would be awesome, and would mean hundreds of points to them in my book, would be if they actually make their lathe ui available to the public. Otherwise, they're simply standing on the shoulders of the giants who actually built their controller, and profiting from it to a large degree none-the-less; which would mean MANY points against them..
Any indication of which route?
No neutral option, eh? :-)
Just out of curiosity how thick does Tormach recommend for the foundation under the new lathe? My Grazziano SAG12 lathe manual recommends 17” thick concrete pad 8” larger than lathe footprint , which BTW is about the same as the footprint for the Tormach lathe. I’m bringing this up because today I was putting in forms to lay concrete for a 7’x7’ extension to my shop to house the Graziano lathe. I am only pouring 12” thick concrete though reinforced with two layers of rebar and steel mesh. I am not sure what the reasoning Graziano used when they came up with 17” (450mm) thick concrete pad.
Don
Don,
Your Grazziano sounds like a significant piece of iron. Haas specs a 6" floor for their 4100lb TL1 lathe, same for their 6500lb TL3. At 1500lb for the Tormach I would guess conventional 4" residential concrete would be enough. I couldn't find foot print dimension on the web so can't compare PSI loading.
Haas Foundation Requirements
Machines must be set on a solid, sound and stable, steel bar-reinforced concrete slab poured directly on the grade. In general, the 6" (150 mm) concrete floor of industrial buildings is suitable for machine placement.
• Concrete shall be 3,500 psi (240 bar) at 28 day strength. Concrete aggregate shall be 1" (25 mm) mix.
• Steel reinforcing shall be 40 ksi (2700 bar) tensile strength.
• The excavation shall be cut neat against undisturbed soil. Any loose material in the excavation shall be removed so that the concrete bears on the undisturbed natural soil. This will help to prevent settling
Keep the leveling feet of the machine at least 12" (300 mm) from the edge of the concrete slab
Thanks for the reply. The Graziano SAG12 is a 12”x32” manual lathe with a footprint of 17” x 66” and weighs 2200 lbs. I am having 2 cu yards of 4500 psi concrete pumped over a matrix of six 3/8” steel rebar anchored into the existing 12” thick slab on one side and six 3/8” steel rebar anchored into the house foundation on the adjacent side. Under the rebar matrix I am going to use steel mesh. Under the four leveling feet of the Graziano is going to be 5” diameter ½” thick steel discs as recommended by the Graziano lathe manual. BTW I also get to use my new Harbor Fright SDS Bosch clone hammer drill for drilling the rebar anchor holes. Already used the HF SDS Hammer drill to chisel existing concrete to make room for the forms. This is almost as much fun as machining. Not going to wait the 28days for the slab to be at full strength, only a week.
Don
It's been almost a couple months since the last post in this thread or on the blog. Any progress or updates on the lathe? I'm a school looking to buy. Is there at least a rough idea of cost and release date?
I'm so glad I didn't wait. There's no way I could have sat on that money I'd saved up until next year some time.
I'm sure it's going to turn out to be an excellent hobby machine for those willing to wait. If it takes a whole lot longer I may be able to save up some more money to actually buy one; provided it's not over-the-top expensive.
MetalShavings
I don't think it's going to be cheap, just based on how massive it is - when I saw it in person a week ago, it was MUCH larger than I'd expected. Even the stand is made of welded-up 3/16" steel plate, not sheet metal. I'd guess price will probably between $10-14K. It does look nicely made, and I'd put it well above a "hobby" level machine. It looks to me to be far beefier than any "hobby" lathe I've ever seen, but rather "stripped-down", and not as full-featured as a commercial turning center.
Regards,
Ray L.
Ray - were all of the tooling options on display?
It's gong to be interesting to see what sorts of accessories are developed for it down the road.
Mike
Too bad it wasn't up and running. If Bob has gotten too busy with other projects, they could always send it to me for beta testing <g>.
Mike
We are now close to 20,000 views since I initially posted this inquiry; and we're still waiting. From the sounds of it, it appears that some headway has been made but, I'm sure glad I didn't wait when I had my money saved up.
MetalShavings