The Tormach PCNC 1100 mill would best be suited for:

[widgitmaster]

The Tormach PCNC 1100 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?

[dave6]

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.

[ironDigit]

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

[lakeside]

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"

[tobyaxis]

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.

[Greolt]

Originally Posted by tobyaxis ................. 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

[lakeside]

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

[BobWarfield]

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

[ganderboy]

Im a big fan of the Tormach Mill. Im just about to purchase on myself, and have 2 friends that have them in there shops and love them. I've used the mill quite abit and its got an amazing bang for the buck . And its working envelope is almost the same as a hass mini mill.

Im surprised aswell that I havent seen anyone thats added an automatic collet closer. I plan to put one on my tormach right away. I did talk to Greg at Tormach awhile back though and he suggested that an air ratchet to loosen and tighten the drawbolt up will speed tool changes up. I thougth that was a great idea also.

Hopefully tormach will come out with a nice nc lathe in the next few years.

I do disagree with Bob warfield's post though. Im an ebay hound and you cant get a late 90's nc knee mill for the same price as a Tormach. Most of them go for 10g or more. Sure there bigger machines and theres more cast iron there but come on!! If they dont then there a 2 axis setup which in my opinion is a waste of time. Any machine that Ive seen on ebay for the 6 to 10 grand price point has been an early 90's or 80's machine with an outdated control thats bound to die and need to be replaced for 5 or 6 grand.

Just my thoughts.
Take care
Dennis in Vancouver

[BobWarfield]

Originally Posted by ganderboy Im a big fan of the Tormach Mill. Im just about to purchase on myself, and have 2 friends that have them in there shops and love them. I've used the mill quite abit and its got an amazing bang for the buck . And its working envelope is almost the same as a hass mini mill. Im surprised aswell that I havent seen anyone thats added an automatic collet closer. I plan to put one on my tormach right away. I did talk to Greg at Tormach awhile back though and he suggested that an air ratchet to loosen and tighten the drawbolt up will speed tool changes up. I thougth that was a great idea also. Hopefully tormach will come out with a nice nc lathe in the next few years. I do disagree with Bob warfield's post though. Im an ebay hound and you cant get a late 90's nc knee mill for the same price as a Tormach. Most of them go for 10g or more. Sure there bigger machines and theres more cast iron there but come on!! If they dont then there a 2 axis setup which in my opinion is a waste of time. Any machine that Ive seen on ebay for the 6 to 10 grand price point has been an early 90's or 80's machine with an outdated control thats bound to die and need to be replaced for 5 or 6 grand. Just my thoughts. Take care Dennis in Vancouver

Dennis, you want one with the control already dead because that lowers the price considerably. To refit with Geckos or Uhus and a PC running Mach 3 will not cost anything like $5K, and then you know just what you've got. Plenty of other fellas on these boards have done exactly that. Seek out their threads and take a look.

In terms of what has sold on eBay just in the last 30 days (you can't see completed auction going back very far) so you know what they actually sold for, consider these:

190238524995: 1984 Alliant CNC Knee Mill, newly retrofited, low hours. Kurt vise, misting system, and other tooling. $7600.

140250710449: 1993 Bridgeport VMC 100. $7100. Tooling for $250 more. That's a working VMC with toolchanger.

250268450223: Bridgeport Series I with Anilam control. $7090.

370069818090: Kondia CNC Knee mill. $4250.

140251675459: Lagun 2-axis. $3001.

160263611404: 1981 Matsura VMC. I've heard lots of recommendations for these over on PM. Toolchanger and the whole nine yards sold for $2750.

360071982494: Shizuoka CNC knee mill, $2950.

This list goes on, those are just the most expensive machines. CNC knee mills aren't worth that much to industry because they aren't nearly as productive as a VMC. No toolchanger for one.

Craigslist has more of the same, similar prices.

Tormach makes a good home hobby machine, but you can do better for production, and the deals are out there on eBay if you look carefully.

Cheers,

BW

[jalessi]

If you have time to go to auctions you might save even more money.

We have purchased several nice CNC machines for less than $3,000

Right now there are a pair (2) Bridgeport CNC machines for sale for $4,500

Thats $2,250.00 each!

Doing a retrofit on each of them has never cost us over $1,500 and thats alot.

Jeff...

[gabe]

We have owned the PCNC 1100 for 11 months. We gave it a solid shot, working on it continuously for 4 months, then we mostly gave up.

For the hobbyist operating from his garage, maybe this thing could work. But any company doing prototyping or short runs (even like 100 parts), the lack of automatic tool changing just makes this machine much too labor intensive.

Also, the open design is a disaster. I had to build an enclosure all around it because it splashed all over.

The screws holding the motor cabinet keep getting lose, the accessories break down (jogger, probes), the paint is mostly gone after a few months, and today I think the thing just died on us (spindle motor)

My opinion of the PCNC 1100: if you are a small or mid-size business: stay away from it!