I have pcnc1100 I purchased early in Tormachs existance serial number around 64.
I've had it for 13+ years and its basically done what I asked.
I did the spindle to VFD upgrade and added the power drawbar.
I wanted something with a faster spinde, but I'm really limited in space and the Tormach fits, I could not get a haas DT or MM into my space under the garage door.
I thought real seriously about buying a OM2 mill as most things I done on the tormach are small...
Alas I decided to cleanup and upgrade the mill.
I just stripped the mill down removing all of the chip trays etc and cleaned it up.
I adjusted all the Gibs, and I replaced all the Angular contact bearings.
The only ones that did not seem pristeen when removed were on the X axis. (Likley got coolant in that area)
I purchased a Tosa Tooling plate. (arrived today according to UPS.)
I'm redoing my enclosure to make it easier to clean out chips.
I purchased the Tormach Servo upgrade kit for the 1100M+. Tormach told me it was mechanically compatible, but I was on my own electrically.
I just finished that install today and it works, but I have not yet finished adjusting the step scaling max speed and acceleration settings to take advantage of this.
I got almost zero support from Tormach on this, however the guys at teknic (whose smartpath servos Tormach uses) have been helpful.
If I were doing it again I might buy the parts directly from teknic rather than tormach. I'm torn on this point as I do want Tormach to continue to be successful and to support their products.
It was a fairly simple install. In addition to the Servo kit I also purchased about 75$ worth of stuff from amazon, power supply, din rail terminal block, 26 pin IDC break out board etc..
to make the new wiring clean and neat
When I complete the settings changes (I'm doing for both mach 3 and pathpilot I hove both controllers) I will post a detailed how to.
Next up Tormach has a 24K Rpm spindle upgrade that clamps in place of the R8 spindle. This is an 80mm spindle.
Rather than get the tormach upgrade kit, I purchased some of the sub components from tormach for that upgrade and
an 80mm water cooled spindle from China with ISO-20 ATC capability.($1200 for spindle, $150 to ship and $450 to clear customs with the China tarrifs)
This should give me a 24K rpm spindle with ISO-20 ATC. I have nto finished working on this.
I'll probably start with a 5 tool wine rack style tool changer. As with 10" of y one can grab 5 tools.
I've also done the preliminary design work for a 16 Tool ISO-20 ATC and again when I finish either or both of that I will post details.
I'm trying to get my shop ready to restart some of my rocketry projects and other than working the day Job ;_0 this is pretty much what I'm
doing with all of my spare time. I expect to have both the Servo, new enclosure, and spindle upgrades done in the next two weeks.
Is there any interest in the details of this?
IE is it worth my time to write this stuff up?