Tormach Lathe Capabilies Questions + Turret?

[coffeetek]

Hi Guys,

I am looking at Tormach Slant lathe and I would like to ask you whether you think it will work well for this scenario. This will be used to turn some light production work, but tolerances are fairly loose.

So I will be turning diameters from 2.5" to 3" pretty much all the time. Profiling, facing and drilling. Length of piece at most 3" but most about 1.5" and less. Material aluminum and stainless.

Also, I am not yet sold on turret. How useful it is?

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[MichaelHenry]

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that gang tooling could be difficult to set up with adequate clearance if you need many tools loaded at once and are turning 2-3-in OD work. On the standard gang tool block, the tool-to-tool distance is around 2" so interference between adjacent tools is possible with work of 2" OD or greater. That wouldn't be a problem with the QC system but then you have to make all or most of your tool changes manually.

On the other hand tool changes with the turret are slower than gang tool changes and my suspicion is that the repeatability of the gang and quick change tooling (especially gang) is a bit better than the turret.

[tmarks11]

If 2.5-3" is the primary diameter you turn, that will limit you quite a bit on how many tools you can install in a gang arrangement. I think turret would work better for you.

[coffeetek]

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that gang tooling could be difficult to set up with adequate clearance if you need many tools loaded at once and are turning 2-3-in OD work. On the standard gang tool block, the tool-to-tool distance is around 2" so interference between adjacent tools is possible with work of 2" OD or greater. That wouldn't be a problem with the QC system but then you have to make all or most of your tool changes manually.

On the other hand tool changes with the turret are slower than gang tool changes and my suspicion is that the repeatability of the gang and quick change tooling (especially gang) is a bit better than the turret.

Thank you guys, that is what I thought. I do have some smaller under 1" diameter parts which would be perfect for gang tooling but lot of work is larger diameter.

Do you think lathe would cut 3" diameters without issues, aluminum and stainless?

Seems then like Turret would be best idea to get from the get go. Gang can always be added on top of that if needed...

[yagmachine]

For owning my SL15 for 3 months now. All I can say is why didn't I buy this sooner!!! Quality of the machine is A+ no short cuts. The inspection report that comes with the machine is actually for the machine you purchased not just a copy of an inspection report. I purchased it with the 8 station turret and the 3 station gang block. I have machined 8" long by 2.5" OD parts with no problems. The next time I run them I will post a video. The only thing I was disappointed with is you have to purchase the full enclosure with the 8 station turret. But after a the first week running it I'm glad Tormach makes you buy it. No chips all over the place no coolant spraying everything. I'm am posting a video of the parts I am getting ready to run. The program took about 5 minutes to write in Path Pilot. This is just the setup piece so the feeds and cuts will be sped up on the run. there are 4 different tools in this setup . #1 rough face and turn, #2 finish face and turn, #3 bore, #4 thread. This machine holds +/- .0005 all day long!!! I also recently threaded a OD 1/2 -13 double lead thread everything was perfect!!

[coffeetek]

This gets expensive real quick. With Turret and just couple of other essential things Tormach Slant lathe is over $20,000 not including shipping...

[tmarks11]

Buy what you can afford. Yes, a turret is nice. But so is an ATC (and my 1100 doesn't have one).

A decent QCTP (like Dorian or Aloris) provides repeatability of 0.0002", so you can preload toolholders with tools, keep the offsets tabled in PP tool table, and swap out by hand really quick for the tools that you can't fit on a gang block.

[coffeetek]

Buy what you can afford. Yes, a turret is nice. But so is an ATC (and my 1100 doesn't have one).

A decent QCTP (like Dorian or Aloris) provides repeatability of 0.0002", so you can preload toolholders with tools, keep the offsets tabled in PP tool table, and swap out by hand really quick for the tools that you can't fit on a gang block.

Indeed, I just can't get a feel yet how much work would it be for me to change tools while making say hundred parts run...

I know that with 440 that I have there was a part that I was making that required 4 tool changes per side, machined on 3 sides and I felt like I was changing tools all the time. It got tiring very quickly...

[tmarks11]

Well you could hedge your bets by buying the Lathe with the full enclosure, so you can save money if/when you buy a turret later.

Plus I think the full enclosure is kind of a requirement on this thing.

But once you find out how much shipping costs for just the turret if you buy it later (~$250), that kind of changes that whole thought process.

[300sniper]

This gets expensive real quick. With Turret and just couple of other essential things Tormach Slant lathe is over $20,000 not including shipping...

$20k is in the ballpark of getting you a nice used real turning center. Granted if you're putting it into a residential garage, you may need to upgrade the electric service, get a phase converter and sacrifice space.

[coffeetek]

$20k is in the ballpark of getting you a nice used real turning center. Granted if you're putting it into a residential garage, you may need to upgrade the electric service, get a phase converter and sacrifice space.

That is exactly what is giving me a pause.

[timbee]

A phase converter is not required. That's the job of the VFD that is in the Tormach lathe and pcnc1100. The requirements are 220v & 110v (US) single phase.

Ahh, miss-read that post by sniper