[SCzEngrgGroup]

And while we are on the subject of LMS, they carry a number of Tormach products and their shipping costs to non-US locations is considerable cheaper than Tormach.

Santa Cruz Electronics (https://www.santacruzelectronics.com/) is the West Coast US Tormach distributor. They stock many of the smaller Tormach products, and will ship at very reasonable rates. Not sure if they ship outside the US, however.

Regards,
Ray L.

[kstrauss]

The last time that I contacted Santa Cruz you had to phone for an international shipping quote and, at least for Haimer tips, they were about the same price as Tormach. LMS was somewhat less.

[Goemon]

LMS is often not that great of a price. What they have going for them is a huge selection of tools specififcally for the small machine guys. Some things you just can't find anywhere else state side inclduig things like metal replacement gear sets for machines that come with plastic gears, or collet closers for mini lathes Also, mini machines with common and useful mods already installed. Like gas spring head support and fixed columns instead of tilt columns. I keep looking at their high torque mini mills, but I really want a full size knee mill as my manual machine for those times when CNC takes longer to setup than it would take to just turn some handles.

Anyway, LMS does a great job of support a niche within the hobby market. I've bought lots of parts and some tools from them for my smaller machines.

LMS now sells the r8 spindle cartridge from their high torque bench mill seperately. I got one to install as a second spindle for face milling for less than $200 (in a custom head casting). They also sell complete heads for the high torque mini mill. You could use your own actuators with them or get hand wheels for your existing CNC machine to do any quick manual work.

The limited work envelope has always been the problem for me with any of the currently available mini mills (and all of the Tormach machines). I figured that diy was the only way for me to get what I wanted for the price I wanted to pay.