Tormach's on-line document library now contains new versions of the machine manual. The standard machine manual is PCNC1100-3-UM-C4.1.pdf. The series II machine manual is PCNC1100-3-II-UM-A1.2a.pdf.

We don't normally announce manual updates. Revisions to the manual are frequent for us, but they usually just have some additional information, corrections, or clarifications. This is a major revision and I'd like to take a moment to comment on it.

This revision contains a new section, a 36 page troubleshooting guide. It's a bit unconventional. Traditional troubleshooting guides are generally a table with rows of Issue/Cause/Solution. If you're like us and have been around industrial equipment for a while, the tables are a pretty frustrating. By necessity, they are dominated by simplistic things like "Power won't come on", cause "Machine not plugged in". Sometimes the tables are limited to a few rows of things like that, with frequent references to "Contact Tech Support".

We have found that the community of Tormach customers is either smarter, or more willing to learn, than are typical operators of industrial equipment. Because of this we felt an unconventional troubleshooting guide was in order. The troubleshooting guide starts out the recommended philosophy of troubleshooting, followed by equipment and procedures. The machine control architecture is divided into 5 subsections. Each subsection has an overview, followed by a conventional troubleshooting Issue/Cause/Solution table, but then it is followed by a section that covers theory of operation. We highlight sections of the circuit diagram that apply to each section and then explain how that section of the circuit works. Essentially, we're providing a commented road map to the circuit diagram.

I hope people like it. It's the sort of troubleshooting guide that we would have wanted to see in the machines we dealt with, but never seemed to find. The primary author of this section is Bob Turnquist with contributions from John Prentice, Bob Grosse, Matt Doeppers, and me.

Printed copies of the manual are available. PN 30625 is the standard machine manual, 31138 is the series II manual. You can order either at http://www.tormach.com/Product_List_PN.html.

Greg Jackson
President

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