I am gearing up to set up a small mill in my garage for hobbyist type work and progressing to making a few dollars here and there as a side job. I have been looking for a while and I want to get a Tormach. I have considered getting a manual benchtop machine and upgrading to CNC in the future, but I would rather get a fully integrated machine out of the box that has technical support if an issue arises.

Here is my issue - My garage only has an 84 inch ceiling height

I want as much machine as I can get, but I don't want to wedge a machine in to my space if it will cause other problems like harder to maintain. The Tormach 440 has a listed overall height of 72 inches, so I assume that will fit no problem. The Tormach 770 has a listed overall height of 88 inches. Does anyone know if the 88 inches is to the top of the enclosure/spindle or to the top of the electrical cable track that comes out of the top of the spindle (which means the machine would need much more than 88 inches)? Is there a way to trim a few inches off the height of the 770 (i.e. shorten the base or use thinner feet) so that it would fit with an 84 inch ceiling height? Also, if I can trim some height off of the base, would I regret it because then I wouldn't be able to service the top of the machine?

Thanks in advance for any help!