The Tormach PCNC 1100 (http://www.tormach.com/) mill would best be suited for:

Home Hobby Shop use.
Small Runs in a Large Shop.
Small Light Duty Manufacturing Business.
Serious Modeling & Prototypes Creation
Just Something to Dream About!
What's A PCNC 1100 mill?

I have found my PCNC very useful in my small one man shop for doing one or two off special parts, light faceing jobs, multiple hole, and pattern drilling jobs. This mill is not light duty, the only thing light duty might be the tool holding set up (R8), you would not want to put a 4" shell mill in this and expect good results. I would say this machine does exactly what it was designed to do. (Afordable, small production runs, prototype work, etc.) I have had mine running 8 hours a day for the last week not one problem.

i looks like its best at what tormach designed and campagned it for isn't it ??

i guess thats why you wont find m all over ebuy

I've taken a good look at this little guy. I like the PC based machining and the over all design of the machine is outstanding . I gone so far as calling. If you look at one all dressed up it less than $13k that not bad for new with a full 4th axis
I voted in the poll as something to dream about.But you could had voted for "all of the above"

The Tormach 1100 seems to be a good machine as far as the advertisment. As a note of personal opinion I would have to see a first hand demonstration of it's advertised capability because seeing is believing. I voted for Home Hobby Shop use mainly do to never seeing one in action. The pricing is excellent and the option to add a 4th axis makes this little mill look very inviting. However, because of it's small work envelope and light construction compared to the average production VMC it doesn't seem to have the capability to be anything other than a Home Hobby Shop Buddy in the Garage.

................. doesn't seem to have the capability to be anything other than a Home Hobby Shop Buddy in the Garage.
I'd like one in my garage :banana:

it will cut a 1/2 end mill 1/2 deep at 18imp not bad for a little guy

I think it is a fantastic choice as a hobby machine. It is a decent, though not spectacular machine for prototyping. It might work for very limited production, but my suspicion is that a used "pro" CNC in the same price range would run circles around the Tormach for production of any volume. Just the "Buy It Now" CNC mills on eBay as I write this include no end of CNC knee mills that are clean and late 90's in that price range. If you want to go mid-80's vintage you can pick up a VMC.

Surprised nobody has tried to improve it much. There are a number of obvious tried and true changes that seem like they would add value:

- Powered Drawbar. Since you don't have a toolchanger, this one would help a lot.

- Servo conversion. This seems obvious. Replace the stepper Geckos with servo Geckos and the stepper motors with servo motors. Performance ought to improve quite a lot if the ballscrew whipping issue doesn't limit the ultimate speed too much.

- Tool Touch Setter. Of course the Tormach gang is probably used to buying their tooling system, but for the price of the starter kit you could hook up a full on touch setter to mach with money left over for a powered drawbar and never worry about it again no matter what holders you buy.

Best,

BW