[compunerdy]

That is correct.

[tmarks11]

The new panels do not have these switches evidently and it is all controlled by the software. Although I am not sure how that works for the computer..

The manual says that the computer outlet is controlled by the rotary switch that provides power to the lathe. The coolant is controlled by software (GUI or M-07/08 on and M-09 off).

[LeeWay]

Not to nit-pick, but I like to add switches when I build the machine that will override what the software does with coolant pump.
I know there have been times I wanted to run without coolant even though it was programmed in the G code.

Not the end of the World by any means, just a nice feature. I haven't used the manual switch often.

Nice looking machine, BTW.

[compunerdy]

I do that as well with the Mill.. If/when I get the new panel I will probably just modify it to hold the switches.

[RTP_Burnsville]

First, thanks for posting some info on these lathes... Second, I have a basic question; What size stock can pass through the spindle? I just don't see it in reading through the manual. My guess is 1.125 as I believe that to be the largest 5C collet.

I have followed this topic (as many here have) for several years. It looks to be a nice machine but I am having a hard time on the price point as it appears you are at $15K before you can actually do anything with it. I also agree that their published base price is a little misleading.

Thanks,
Robert

[menzzer37]

It should be 1.0625 on the 5c for max. I believe the bore is 1.375 but I can check it.

It is not worth 15k after having to rewire, drill/tap for splash guard to even go on, no finished switch panel (mine didn't have stickers), collet closer that still needs modified.... on and on.

Also remember, you have a 24"cross slide but with only really 14" usable inches in travel. I'll post some images soon.

[LeeWay]

I feel the price is steep as well, but it may actually do a lot more than my sub $4000 home made lathe. Not that I need it to. I don't do threading on mine, but if I decided to in the future, I would just swap out my DC motor and drive for a Servo system. In a pinch, I could move my lathe by myself. Probably weighs only about 150 pounds tops. I generally just turn plastic, brass and aluminum, but have done steel with it.
This Tormach lathe should have no trouble with any of that kind of material. Maybe even turn hardened steel ball screws. If that is your needs, then it may not be too much money.

On my lathe a tail stock is unimportant, so I did not design one in. This Tormach lathe looks better thought out in that regard. I could actually put a tail stock in mine, but I would have to redo my carriage to resemble the Tormach more and place all my gang tooling differently. That or use a small turret.

Only other thing that might be a nice upgrade to either lathe is a bar feeder. One of those will eventually pay for itself in production.

[tmarks11]

remember, you have a 24"cross slide but with only really 14" usable inches in travel.

The Tormach specs say 10" of x-axis travel. 14? I suspect the width of the cross-slide is based upon the dimensions of the turret, which will require 8-10" of cross slide surface for mounting (just eyeballing the pictures).

10" (or 14"?) is actually a bit more than most lathes in this size category. The typical home workshop grade 12x36 or 13x40 lathes only have about 6" of x travel. A Haas ST-10 (14" swing) has 7.9" of x axis travel (but it doesn't rely on gang tooling). A Jet 1440ZX (a pretty good size manual lathe) has 9" of travel.

The only thing that more X travel (beyond 1/2 of the available swing) gets you is more tooling that you can keep on the cross slide with gang tooling.

Think about it, you only need to move the cutting edge of your bit from the maximum radius you want to cut to centerline. On a manual lathe, being able to go a few inches past that is helpful, because it makes some strange cutting geometry with the compound easier. But you don't have or need a compound slide on a cnc lathe.

menzzer: sounds like you are a bit dissatisfied with the assembly procedure. Holes on the splash guard not drilled or misaligned? What did you have to rewire?

I'm just a little miffed by their marketing it as a base price of 10.3 when it's really 11.5. Obviously freight is extra and should always be assumed so. (only $350 for me).

In January, Tormach said "An entry level package will cost a little over $10k, and will include chuck guard, stand, and controller. A deluxe package with lots of options including a turret, full enclosure, etc., will be around $19k."

It does seem a bit disingenuous of Tormach. The "entry level package" at $10.3k doesn't include controller and chuck guard. So I wonder how much price creep will occur on the fully kitted version when they release it? Haas only charges $3800 to add a 4 way turret onto their TL-1, I wonder what Tormach will charge?

I wish Tormach would stop waffling and just post what the prices will be. What would it cost to add a tailstock, turret, enclosure, pneumatic chuck closer, etc. I am definitely interested, as I was in the market to spend $7k-10k on a manual lathe when this came out, but am leery about the extra cost to get a working lathe.

[menzzer37]

Dissatisfied? Yes, for the price, it's not a finished product. It came with 3 or 4 service bulletins that required modification. Why ship something that needs updates? That's fine, but I should be able to bill them for time since I purchased a NEW functioning machine, not a project.

The holes are NOT drilled in the stand. They send you a drill bit and a tap to assemble it. You also have to drill holes in the chuck guard and backsplash for this rubber thing that it suppose to cut down on splash.

I had to require the motor as whatever chinaman who put it together wired it backwards so forward was clockwise. This means they do NO quality control in WI.

I'm annoyed to say the least on the price. I'm writing Greg an email about this. I bought on the preorder. So I go to the website, it says base price: $10,300. I pay my 2K deposit and they send me an invoice for another 10k! They then go on to tell me that it is pretty clear that the controller and splashguard are not options and that the base price of 10.3 does not include them. THEN IT'S NOT A BASE PRICE! That's like saying oh here this car is 30k, but it doesn't include an engine for that price...so you can't drive it off the lot unless you give us another 10. Seriously? Shady marketing... I love my 1100, don't get me wrong, but I'm about 6-7 hours into installation of this thing.

Even the pulley change was not straight forward. The set screw holes are not the same on either pulley...so you have to drill another hole in the shaft if you want to lock the pulley on.

[menzzer37]

And one more thing... the POS is limited to 2500 rpm where the website says 3500! Yes, I have it set to 5C as well. Think I can get a refund?

[TarHeelTom]

I have PCNC1100 Serial Number 14. I always wondered if they skipped over 13 - like I hear about buildings skipping the 13th floor.

Different culture in China. Stayed in a hotel in Taipai, and there was no 4th floor.

Tom

[tmarks11]

I can understand your frustration with the whole bait and switch price thing. They definitely were not up-front about that.

And one more thing... the POS is limited to 2500 rpm where the website says 3500! Yes, I have it set to 5C as well.

With the larger (5C) pulley installed on the motor, you are not getting 3500 rpm? Have you tried using the spindle override feature to get a faster speed if you need it? I assume that this is a bug in the software, with the 5C (high speed) configuration on the settings page not programmed correctly, and Tormach will fix this (eventually)

I don't really get the whole 2 pulley thing (one for the 6" chuck, one for the 5C)... isn't that the point of having a VFD? Changing out pulley based upon which chuck you are using seems asinine to me. If the problem is that Tormach needs more low end torque, then they should put a larger motor on the thing to give the needed torque at low end, and use the VFD to establish the entire speed range without swapping out pulleys. The difference in price between a 3Hp and 5Hp motor is minimal. Worried about damage at higher speeds? VFD can be configured to limit current.

Speaking of which, what brand VFD did they use?

[menzzer37]

It is an Emerson just like the mills. I got mad and left it. I'll go back at it and see if I can figure out the spindle issues.

[MetalShavings]

And one more thing... the POS is limited to 2500 rpm where the website says 3500! Yes, I have it set to 5C as well. Think I can get a refund?

I had a feeling these types of things would happen with the first ones out the door. My old college professor once told us, "Never buy the first batch of any product. They're the most prone to be plagued with tweaking problems." In their hurry to get them to market, many manufactures take to many shortcuts and then deal with the consequences later.

The bad thing about having to do any tweaking to a new machine just to get it to work as you expected is, if you ever did run into a situation where you asked for your money back you would most likely hear something to the effect that you had altered the machine so they can't refund your money.

I'm more than sure that in the end you'll get a useful machine out of it. It's just real disheartening to hear that you're having such problems with such a highly touted Tormach product. I'm glad I didn't wait. I just bought a manual lathe instead. If I were to buy one of these, I think I'd wait a little longer; about a year or so more. Just to give them time to work all the bugs out of it; and that's just for the lathe, who knows what problems lie ahead with their SprutCam software for this lathe. That was a major struggle I had with my 770.

In time I got it all worked out and I'm very happy with it. I'd just hate to go through all of that again with their CNC Lathe.

MetalShavings

[menzzer37]

I figured out the spindle speed. You just can't manually spin it more than 2500 for some reason but it will go faster when keeping constant SFM.

Their gang tooling is off .032 in height. This is probably why they sell a $90 shim kit... it just doesn't make sense though. When you have to buy $120 per 6" riser blocks for standard gang blocks..why aren't they closer than 30 thou? I can see .003-5, but 1/32"? I'm going to space the actual T-slot plate since I will be changing out gang blocks. I had bought some omni-turn blocks so I tried one of the Tormach branded ones and it is off the same amount. They are both 1/2" center height blocks.

One other thing on the software... the radius tool is only for a corner radius. You cannot conversationally program an elonged curve at a specific radius. This would be a nice feature to have.

[LeeWay]

Make your own and use your spindle to spot and drill the tool holders. I use a 1/4" TTS set screw holder in one position for a drill bit and then a TTS ER collet in the second position. The only tool height I have to adjust is my QCTP.

[tmarks11]

Their gang tooling is off .032 in height. .... I'm going to space the actual T-slot plate since I will be changing out gang blocks. I had bought some omni-turn blocks so I tried one of the Tormach branded ones and it is off the same amount. They are both 1/2" center height blocks

Sounds to me like they ground either the t-slot plate or the riser block to the wrong dimensions. They should have made it 0.032" thicker so their (and other standard) gang tooling blocks fit without shimming.

Maybe a little bit lower so you can adjust the tool exactly to centerline.

Sounds like if you have access to a surface grinder that you would be better off making your only fixture plate instead of using the t-slot plate.

At least it justifies adding a surface grinder to your collection...

Why does gang tooling require the t-plate, a riser block, and the gang block? I haven't used gang tooling before, but it really seems like stacking up all those individual pieces adds time to setup, and reduces rigidity.. and increases cost... $194 (short t-plate) + $122 (0.75" riser block) + $240 (6 position gang block) + $98 (shim kit) to mount 6 tools...ouch...

[menzzer37]

Yes, it's a ton more money and it's probably so they can rig together the turret, gang, and QCTP. It's definitely not made right.

That's a great idea on making your own tool holder I did buy one of their blanks for $30. I just wish I hadn't wasted the $220 from Omni for the big long 8 position one. I'll call them Tuesday and chat before I go drilling the blank.

[tmarks11]

That's a great idea on making your own tool holder

That was one of my first thoughts when I saw they were charging $124 for the QCTP support plate. 6x6x1.2" of steel with 8 holes drilled in it for $124 seems a bit over the top. Really don't even have to do a surface grind on it; face milling would give you enough of a flat surface to be functional.

[LeeWay]

I initially just used some steel square stock, but have since put both those tools in a cast iron block. They always stay the same distance part that way.If I need other type tools, I could slide these out of my T slot table and insert a different pair. I have two slots in my table. Forward and rear meaning spindle side and tail side.It works out nicely. I never have to remove anything from my lathe though. I make all my parts using the same 3 tools.