Torus pro not reaching advertised travel ?.

[AUSTINMACHINING]

So,
I've been using my Torus successfully for most everything. I have a new large part that I need to machine, but still fits within the advertised travel (A big part of the reason I chose this machine). So I got to set up, and I've only getting 19.7(X) x 11(Y) out of the 24" x 15" advertised.
Any other Torus pro owners have this issue ?.




-Matt

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[SCzEngrgGroup]

One of the joys of Chinese machines is that they require a bit of "fettling" to make them perform their best. Mine does do the full 25"X 15"Y, 12"Z, but it required re-locating the home sensors, and perhaps a few other things, to get full travel. If you have the old stand/trays, you'll also need to shorten the X motor cover. Getting full X travel requires over-travelling to the right, such that 5-6" of the saddle ways are exposed on the left. IIRC, you also have to move the front attachment of the front Y bellows closer to the front wall of the enclosure. On mine, I actually bolted it (using thumbscrews, for easy removal) to the front wall of the enclosure. This allows me to detach the bellows and easily clean under them.

Regards,
Ray L.

[dertsap]

Mine does do the full 25"X 15"Y, 12"Z, but it required re-locating the home sensors, and perhaps a few other things, to get full travel. L.

Really ?? Is this the case on older mills or all of them ? Mine should be here next week and the biggest factor for me was the advertised travel

[keithmcelhinney]

Also make sure that the bolt that limits the y travel is out. It is under the way cover in the front.

[mklotz70]

On mine, there was an allen bolt up under the left side of the bed that limited the x axis from moving to the right that extra 5-6" as mentioned. For the x axis home switch, I moved the channels to different holes so that the block that trips the sensor was closer to the physical limit.

I'm pretty sure there were two screws limiting the y axis. One under the front bellows near the ball nut block and another at the back left under the bellow.

If you have servos.....be very careful.....they have enough grunt to break the physical stops rather easily.

[dertsap]

Good to know these things ahead of time and before the mill is covered in oil and chips .
I take it that it's pretty straight forward and not a lot a lot of crap to do the mods ??? Right now I'm trying to picture this in my head since I have nothing physical to look at .

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Good to know these things ahead of time and before the mill is covered in oil and chips .
I take it that it's pretty straight forward and not a lot a lot of crap to do the mods ??? Right now I'm trying to picture this in my head since I have nothing physical to look at .

No, not a big deal at all. Basically de-taching and re-mounting the rails the home sensors attach to, removing a few stop bolts. Probably a couple of hours for everything.

Regards,
Ray L.

[AUSTINMACHINING]

Good to know these things ahead of time and before the mill is covered in oil and chips .
I take it that it's pretty straight forward and not a lot a lot of crap to do the mods ??? Right now I'm trying to picture this in my head since I have nothing physical to look at .

Definitely good to know before hand. I assumed my mill was delivered as advertised, so I never measured the travel. I built my enclosure door frame based on the actual travel of the machine. So now the opening is too narrow for parts that hang off the front of the table. It's going to be a lot more work on the enclosure than on the mill. Novakon needs to take that off the Web site, or deliver as advertised.

[dertsap]

I most certainly agree . Those specs should be out of the box , or it should be specified on the site so that customers can be prepared ahead of time . I can deal with knowing these things ahead of time , but without knowing and the pressure of my work schedule then I'd come absolutely unglued to find that a planned fixture set up isn't going to fit .
So far my dealing with Kai has been good so I say this with due respect

[engnerdan]

Here are the screws being talked about for the Y axis

[AUSTINMACHINING]

Here are the screws being talked about for the Y axis

Thanks. Good to see a picture of location.

[Novakon]

Certainly a good statement about the travels. Lets take a look at the history on this...

Our NM-200 and Torus PRO mills have been able to travel these ranges for over 7 years. In the case of the older NM-200 mills, the original stand enclosure was a bit bothersome for the Y travel due to the Y axis sensor rail being mounted on the saddle versus the bed. This would allow the sensor rail to hit the front of the coolant containment sheet metal. When the NM-200's were shipped "years ago", the relocation of the rail was mentioned on a case for case basis with customers. Some were relocated in our shop and others were not depending on the customers needs. The reason it wasn't always moved was that the Y axis sensor rail wasn't long enough to be used to trigger the "end limit" for both limits for 15" so it was positioned for homing only. Soft limits were typically used with Mach3 to control and protect from "over travel". The introduction of the new stand corrected the old Y axis sensor bar from hitting the front since there was much more clearance in the front.

The factory did include the "hard stop" bolts, but unfortunately added them in the wrong locations which limited the available travel. Some bolts were removed in our shop, but not all were not caught before they went out. This was our oversight. We do apologize for this.

In the case of Blake's mill, it was purchased as a used mill and was not "out of the box". How the previous customer configured his mill is uncertain so I cannot comment on this. When building your new enclosure though, if the front sheet metal was used as a "minimum guide", there should have been plenty of room for full travel. To utilize all of the travel, you do have to pay attention to where you mount your project on the table. It most certainly has to be mounted close to the column with the table fully positioned toward the rear. Your project will over hang the table both in the front and back to achieve the useful range for cutting since the table is 12" wide. The only consideration beyond this is the Z axis gas spring mount. If your project is too tall, it is possible to collide with this during your cut. Please be carful with this.

The recent shipments of Torus PROs have the new Y axis slide bar mounted to the base casting and allow the trigger slugs to be adjustabe for the entire advertised travel. The mill always had the full range of travel. If there are any problems that exist, just email us and we will assist in working out the problem.

Regards,
John

[mklotz70]

Hi John,
Any pics of the new Y axis slide bar? Can we re-position the old bar or buy retrofit parts?

[Novakon]

Hi Mike,

Your old bar is a few inches too short to be relocated on the base and be useful for the full Y travel. I will take some pictures of the assembly for your viewing so you can see the changes. I would think a couple of locally purchased parts and a few tweaks, you can build something very similar. I will have some pictures to post eith today or tomorrow.

Regards to you,
John

[AUSTINMACHINING]

Update.
I took the rail off the x axis slide bar and drilled a couple new holes to extend trigger block as needed. Easy enough. The Y axis bar will be a little more difficult, but on my mill enclosure (the old model I'm guessing) I would have to chop off a lot of steel to prevent collision with my y axis switch rail and my vise which overhangs the front of the table. The interference is amplified with the extended x axis travel. I'll leave the Y axis as is until I can get a new enclosure.

[mklotz70]

Hi Mike,

Your old bar is a few inches too short to be relocated on the base and be useful for the full Y travel. I will take some pictures of the assembly for your viewing so you can see the changes. I would think a couple of locally purchased parts and a few tweaks, you can build something very similar. I will have some pictures to post eith today or tomorrow.

Regards to you,
John

Thanks John!! I'll keep an eye out for them.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

FWIW - I personally don't think it's worth trying to use the proximity sensors for limits. They are FAR too easily false-triggered by chips, even aluminum chips. I use mine only for homing. I made up a set of enclosed Hall Effect switches that will get mounted as combination home and limit switches, if I ever get the free time to mount and wire them.

Regards,
Ray L.

[Novakon]

I took some pictures today to show the new arrangement of the Y axis sensor slide bar. Most likely, it can be made with some ready rod, washers and a couple of nuts and it will do the same job. Maybe the old sensor bracket can be remounted to the saddle to function in a similar fashion. Because the sensor is faced down, there should not be a problem with false trigger with chips building up like the previous design. Of course, if you have to shovel the chips away after a large cutting job, even this could be a problem. The wash down spray hose was intended to rinse away the chips before they got too bulky into piles. Wash them off the mill and down the drain they go!

Regards,
John