I'm seriously considering buying a Tormac 1100 but I need help!

I'm a novice machinist but I am an engineer so I looked through Tormach's posted certificate of inspection carefully.

First of all I congratulate Tormach for posting this online as well as a wealth of other informative material. The problem is that no one else does so I don't have anything to compare it to!

Three things bother me somewhat.

First, the spindle runout spec is .o3 mm at 100mm or 1.2 mills at 4".
The runout spec for my Jet manual mill is 0.8 mills at 12" and my machine measures about 0.5 mills.

The next two questions regard the test block. It looks like they mill out a 6" by 2" block on one of every 20 machines in a batch.

The 'b' spec. parallelism of the top of the block to the bottom is .06mm or 2.4 mills. This doesn't seem very good. Am I wrong?

The 'c' spec. is the perpendicularity of one side to the top and to the other side. This is .06mm over 50mm or 2.4 mills over 2". Again, this seems kind of loose.

How does this compare with the expected performance of a more expensive machine like a Haas?

My eternal gratitude for any feedback from some of you old pro's out there!

I do not own a Tormak mill, but the specifications of the test block seem ok to me! If you take in to consideration the end mill is supported on one end only, that the amount of flex and deflection will increase as the feedrate incrases!
Also, how accurately was the head trammed square prior to running the test?
The other element to take into consideration is the quality of the endmill! Some endmills have a slight taper even when new!

The only true test to the machines squareness is to sweep the table with a .0001" dial indicator mounted in the spindle!

Eric

It looks like terrific machine to me. I will probably order one sometime next year.

Mariss

Cool Mariss....then maybe you or we can come with a logo and slogan...."You've been Gecko-ized!"

It looks like terrific machine to me. I will probably order one sometime next year.

Mariss, does that mean that you and Tormach have come to an agreement? If so, is it something you'd be willing to comment on?

The best of the New Year to you, and Tormach.

Randy

P.S. I've taken this past week off work to (try to) complete a long term project at home, and have been either running my Tormach, or doing CAD work for it, for 14-16 hours a day and loving it. The Tormach is a very solid machine, and is plenty accurate for the work I'm doing with it.

Gentlemen
Thanks for the feedback!
Have a great new year!
Bruce

That sounds like a very tight tolerance at 12" from the spindle. IIRC standard collets normally have a concentricity tolerance of 0.8 thou. at the collet. What kind of a test bar are you using and how are you mounting it in the spindle.

Regards:)
Phil


The runout spec for my Jet manual mill is 0.8 mills at 12" and my machine measures about 0.5 mills.
!

I'm not sure. I'm just going by the inspection sheet that came with my mill. It just states 0.4 mills at the spindle, 0.8 mills at 12", and that mine measured 0.551 mills at 12". I did measure it at the spindle and there is an immeasurable fluxuation with a 1 mill indicator. I'm not complaining!

[QUOTE=ProtoTrains;235562]Mariss, does that mean that you and Tormach have come to an agreement? If so, is it something you'd be willing to comment on?

I think I'll leave that for Greg Jackson to make mention on if he wants. I'll just say some positive things have happened.

Mariss

Well that is great Mariss....those little tirades were getting to be a bit much...understandable, but a bit much....

For my own interest, what did you use for a test bar and how was it mounted in the spindle.

Regards:)
Phil

I'm not sure. I'm just going by the inspection sheet that came with my mill. It just states 0.4 mills at the spindle, 0.8 mills at 12", and that mine measured 0.551 mills at 12". I did measure it at the spindle and there is an immeasurable fluxuation with a 1 mill indicator. I'm not complaining!