Tormach enclosure question....

[pete from TN]

Just wondering if anyone of you fellows could tell me what guage the steel is on the sheet metal that the Tormach enclosure is built from? I am getting ready to buy some sheet steel and weld me up a very similar enclosure to the tormach one. Is there anything you would recommend on improvements to it or things that may be made differently? The only thing I am gonna do differently is to make a plexi front apron with a pair of magnet catch doors in the center. This is only to make the front of the machine a little less likely to have coolant and swarf splashing over the steel apron underneath it. Does that make sense? The back and sides will hopefully be the same and I am also unsure of the location of the drains in the tormach enclosure. I just know that it looks pretty nice and seems like it would do the trick for my Lathemaster mill conversion too.... Thanks in advance and peace

[zephyr9900]

Pete, on my machine both the stand and backsplash are .078"/2mm over the paint. The stand has a single drain near the rear left corner. If you could build in some drainage slope in your stand topsheet toward the drain it would help. Even though I have my machine stand tilted towards the left, a goodly amount of coolant can still pool on the topsheet. If you ever anticipate working on the y-axis waycover, you might want to give yourself some room in front of the machine base. On my Tormach stand, the front edge of the front y waycover is almost line-to-line with the inside of the drip pan flange.

Randy

[pete from TN]

Well that sounds like 15 05 16 guage steel then? I suppose that I should make it even stiffer but I gotta get a price for the steel I need to see what it is gonna cost. The metal shop I use said they had 20 guage in stock at a 4x10 sheet was like $55.00 or so. I think that 12 guage would be real nice and strong. The price will probably be twice that much tho. The enclosure is someplace that I did not want to scrimp on since it will keep the shop floor clean and me as well. We have a weinig knife grinder machine at work in the tool shop where we machine our woodworking knives and it has a leak and it is real frustrating to have to mop up the coolant all the time. Whatever I do I need to make this thing hold it juices....

I am sure that i will try to make the Y axis motor have a lot of clearance but I am not quite sure what you are talking about here....Is the top of the motor flush with the top of the splash tray? The Y motor on my machine is not exactly short and the servo mount is also like three to four inches long so there is gonna need to be some clearance for sure.... Any other ideas as to what might be an improvement? peace

[zephyr9900]

Pete, I'd guess the Tormach stand is 14 gauge, which is .075" thick nekkid.

On the Tormach stand, the Y axis motor and mount/shaft coupler housing stick out through a big slot in the chip tray. But that's in back of the column, where there shouldn't be much or any splashing. I was talking about the front of the stand and chip tray. Sorry, but this is the only photo I have from the right angle (ignore the full enclosure in progress...) When i retrofitted the new y-axis waycover I had to remove the chip trays to get access.

Randy

[pete from TN]

Unlike the tormach apparently, my motor and mount will be in the front of the machine. I have seen someone do it out the back of the machine but I did not want to have to machine the back of the column. The splash tray looks pretty well made from the pictures. What are your plans for the full enclosure you are doing, apparently you feel that the factory tray is not enough so I would like to hear your view on the addition you are making for it... Thanks for all your input. I sure wish I could afford the tormach or the IH turnkey but a poor fellow like me needs to build it or he will not get it ya know what I mean....

I gotta see what the 14 guage material is cost wise from the supplier tomorrow so I can see what the enclosure is gonna cost me. If it is too much I got a bunch of steel rectangular tubing waste that they are wanting to get rid of from work. I would have to strip it and probably run a wire brush over it but it would work okay I think. I would rather do it with the sheet tho and make it resemble the tormach machine since I like the way it looks. As I said I was gonna make a front plexiglass shield to go atop the splash tray to make more of a full enclosure for it. It will still be open on the top tho.... thanks again and peace...

[zephyr9900]

Oh, sorry Pete, I thought you were talking about a Tormach and a Lathemaster mill conversion. My mistake. I've started a thread with pics and description of my own enclosure (which I've been using for about 3 months now and really like) and will be happy to talk more about it there (and answer questions from my probably-left-important-info-out description).

Randy

[pete from TN]

No I was talking about my Lathemaster cnc conversion and I am building an enclosure for it. I like the way the tormach looks and the enclosure on it looks simple enough, but please post away your pictures of your enclosure and any ideas as I need all I can get...peace