[MichaelHenry]

I drove up to Madison on Friday for a demo of the new lathe and was pretty impressed. Everything looks pretty beefy and the turret is much heavier than I'd have expected. I like the chip collection, especially compared to the mill and can see the advantage of a full enclosure.

Getting this into the basement of our townhome will be quite a challenge but it seems doable.

Mike

[mountaindew]

Sounds good!
They published the pdf manual to it the other day.
I looked thru it to get an idea of specs and how it works as a system.
md

[tmarks11]

I noticed in the manual that they say the machine has a 7.5" swing (vs 15" swing).

Seems they still haven't figured out the radius vs diameter nomenclature (they have a UK-trained machinist on staff or something?).

I wish they would publish some prices. I would really like to know what the upgrade $$$ will be to add a full enclosure at a later date if you buy it with just a chip guard now.

Did they give you some idea of when they would start shipping?

I am kicking myself, cause I drove through Madison three times last year when I was moving from DC to Seattle. Didn't even think of stopping and taking a look. Wish I had, don't have time to fly out there now.

[mactec54]

I noticed in the manual that they say the machine has a 7.5" swing (vs 15" swing).

Seems they still haven't figured out the radius vs diameter nomenclature (they have a UK-trained machinist on staff or something?

What makes you think 7.5" is wrong, the max size chuck is 6" dia, with 3.1" over the saddle, it only has a 3Hp spindle motor, 3 Hp motor will be about right to turn a steel piece up to 6" dia you would need around 12 Plus Hp, to to do a 15" dia steel piece

[tmarks11]

The name of the Lathe is 15L. The 15 refers to the swing (diameter) of 15". Look at the spec page on the Tormach site: it says 15":

Tormach 15L Slant-PRO? CNC Lathe | Tormach LLC providers of personal small CNC machines, CNC tooling, and many more CNC items.

There is a back story here that you might have missed if you weren't following the Tormach Lathe blog postings. Last year, Tormach published their initial specs in their blog, and said the lathe had a 7.5" swing over bed, and 3.1" over cross slide, which disappointed a lot of people. They meant RADIUS, rather than the more common DIAMETER used in the US when referring to swing. This feedback led Tormach to modify their specs to reduce confusion, as well as renamed their lathe (was SBL1012, became 15L)

You can see the info here, with the original promulgated values crossed our and the correct diameter values annotated (15" over bed, 6.2" over cross-slide).

[url=http://www.tormach.com/blog/talking-specs-tormach-sbl-1012-slant-bed-lathe/]Talking Specs: Tormach SBL 1012 Slant Bed Lathe

[mactec54]

tmarks11

Nothing has changed it is still 7.5 swing, which is 15" dia over the bed 3.1" swing 6.2 dia over the saddle, with in all reality, it is a lathe that has a comfortable 6"dia machining capacity, the 3 Hp spindle motor tell's you what it will be capable of.

It's a good size machine which complements there Mills

[MichaelHenry]

Sounds good!
They published the pdf manual to it the other day.
I looked thru it to get an idea of specs and how it works as a system.
md

Thanks for the manual pointer. I'd meant to ask about that but forgot. I was especially interested in the exploded view drawings.

[MichaelHenry]

I wish they would publish some prices. I would really like to know what the upgrade $$$ will be to add a full enclosure at a later date if you buy it with just a chip guard now.

Did they give you some idea of when they would start shipping?

I didn't get any firm commitments on prices or shipping, but then I was interested in the turret model, and they are waiting for the enclosure to be finished before taking orders and establishing pricing on that. It looks like you could buy the QC/gang tool model now and add the turret later, but you may end up paying for standard add-ons, like the chuck guard, that aren't needed for the turret. I may still go that route, though I really prefer the idea of getting the lathe set up the way I want from the get-go. The way I go will depend on project needs.

It certainly is a lot quieter than my Clausing 5914 lathe.

Mike

[mountaindew]

Thanks for the manual pointer. I'd meant to ask about that but forgot. I was especially interested in the exploded view drawings.

I keep a link to tormach's publish list and check it every few days for updates to their publications for mill and other tools. "I like to keep current on changes"
I have a spot picked out and ran the conduits for dedicated 220 machine power and 110 controller over the weekend. Still don't think I will order one for a while, I have 4th axis and few other tool systems to setup and master on the mill before adding more to the digital tool box.
md

[tmarks11]

...they are waiting for the enclosure to be finished before taking orders and establishing pricing on that.

Did they give you any indication of when they would start shipping?

Do you have a general idea of how wide the bed is? Looking at the pictures, if the table is 24" wide, it looks like the bed is 10", which would be nice.

[MichaelHenry]

Sorry, but I didn't check the width of the bed in detail. From recollection, it looked a lot more beefy than the bed on my Clausing 5914 lathe, so I don't expect any problems there.

WRT shipping, the last newsletter indicated that they are probably shipping now, but that's a question best left to Tormach themselves.

Mike

[menzzer37]

I was told early June for shipping at the soonest.