-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Anyone has a Tormach mill
- Thread starter alexmin
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2006
- Messages
- 429
I have a Tormach. It seems like it should do well for a knifemaker. I use a rotary axis on mine and don't do much XY cutting on it. The spindle is very smooth, and it looks and runs like a pretty well designed machine. Even though it has R8 tooling, the Tormach Tooling System has dual contact, so is very stiff and accurate. I haven't seen anything else with the bang for the buck of this one. With hindsight, I'd get it again.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2006
- Messages
- 429
It's no problem at all. You would draw it in CAD and pull off the start and end points of the lines and arcs. The machine needs to know the start and end coordinates of an arc, as well as the center or radius. It could be done in CAM, where the program writes all the code, but it's pretty easy to write the code by hand for simple stuff like this. I usually hand write all my code. When you get good at it, you can use parametrics in your code, so depending on a variable like a length that you input, you can have all the code automatically scale or otherwise change holes or things. I hand wrote a program like that for a titanium ring today.
Here's a picture of a bike chainring that I used to make from titanium. The teeth used formulas to figure out the correct radius from center and how much angle to offset from each other. This way, only one tooth had to be programmed for the 53 sizes of chainrings that I made. The Tormach Mach 3 control can do stuff like that.
Here's a picture of a bike chainring that I used to make from titanium. The teeth used formulas to figure out the correct radius from center and how much angle to offset from each other. This way, only one tooth had to be programmed for the 53 sizes of chainrings that I made. The Tormach Mach 3 control can do stuff like that.
synthesist
So many knives so little time
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2004
- Messages
- 933
Tormach's Recommended Complete PCNC Package
Our complete PCNC package is what we recommend for the most complete CNC shop. The total cost for this package is $15,616.85 (without shipping). This 4-axis CNC set has a Tormach prepared control PC, premium level CAD and CAM software, and an extensive tooling set. It includes the following products:
Product Price
PCNC 1100 Mill (30204) $6800.00
Deluxe Machine Stand (30297) $1325.00
Machine Arm (30286) $265.00
Tool Tray for Machine Arm (30555) $47.00
Lifting Bar (30576) $76.00
4th Axis 8" Table (30289) $1180.00
4th Axis Tailstock 8" (30197) $128.00
3 Jaw Chuck 8" (30291) $253.00
4 Jaw Chuck 8" (30293) $247.00
5C Collet Adaptor (30294) $365.00
MT3 Collet & Drawbolt (30233) $25.75
15 pc 5C Round Collet Set (30252) $84.00
High Speed Spindle Kit (30478) $187.50
5" Machining Vise (30553) $495.00
Jog/Shuttle Controller (30616) $68.50
USB Mini Keyboard (30284) $34.00
Configured PC w/Monitor (30282) $827.00
USB Extension (30279) $18.00
Video Cable Extension (30280) $22.00
CNC Operator's Tool Set (30189) $670.00
TTS - JT1 (30101) $14.20
1/4" Keyless Chuck for JT1 (30474) $39.50
TTS - JT2 (30243) $14.20
3/8" Keyless Chuck for JT2 (30245) $36.68
TTS - ER20 Tool Holder (3005) $81.90
1/8" ER20 Collet (30112) $18.20
3/16" ER20 Collet (30250) $18.20
1/4" ER20 Collet (30120) $18.20
3/8" ER20 Collet (30128) $18.20
TTS - Boring 7/8 x 20 (30247) $33.22
Boring Head 7/8 x 20 (30248) $75.00
Boring Bar Set (30249) $23.50
Alibre Design (30491) $498.00
SprutCAM Expert w/License (30494)$972.00
Total Cost: $15,616.85
Wooohoooooooooooo - get out your checkbooks
Our complete PCNC package is what we recommend for the most complete CNC shop. The total cost for this package is $15,616.85 (without shipping). This 4-axis CNC set has a Tormach prepared control PC, premium level CAD and CAM software, and an extensive tooling set. It includes the following products:
Product Price
PCNC 1100 Mill (30204) $6800.00
Deluxe Machine Stand (30297) $1325.00
Machine Arm (30286) $265.00
Tool Tray for Machine Arm (30555) $47.00
Lifting Bar (30576) $76.00
4th Axis 8" Table (30289) $1180.00
4th Axis Tailstock 8" (30197) $128.00
3 Jaw Chuck 8" (30291) $253.00
4 Jaw Chuck 8" (30293) $247.00
5C Collet Adaptor (30294) $365.00
MT3 Collet & Drawbolt (30233) $25.75
15 pc 5C Round Collet Set (30252) $84.00
High Speed Spindle Kit (30478) $187.50
5" Machining Vise (30553) $495.00
Jog/Shuttle Controller (30616) $68.50
USB Mini Keyboard (30284) $34.00
Configured PC w/Monitor (30282) $827.00
USB Extension (30279) $18.00
Video Cable Extension (30280) $22.00
CNC Operator's Tool Set (30189) $670.00
TTS - JT1 (30101) $14.20
1/4" Keyless Chuck for JT1 (30474) $39.50
TTS - JT2 (30243) $14.20
3/8" Keyless Chuck for JT2 (30245) $36.68
TTS - ER20 Tool Holder (3005) $81.90
1/8" ER20 Collet (30112) $18.20
3/16" ER20 Collet (30250) $18.20
1/4" ER20 Collet (30120) $18.20
3/8" ER20 Collet (30128) $18.20
TTS - Boring 7/8 x 20 (30247) $33.22
Boring Head 7/8 x 20 (30248) $75.00
Boring Bar Set (30249) $23.50
Alibre Design (30491) $498.00
SprutCAM Expert w/License (30494)$972.00
Total Cost: $15,616.85
Wooohoooooooooooo - get out your checkbooks
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2006
- Messages
- 429
I got mine with 4th axis, stand, computer, tooling, and shipping for around $12K. I was looking at the Haas toolroom mill and a couple others at around $40K, and I wasn't nearly as impressed. You want coordinate rotation? Cha-Ching, we can add that. You want enough memory to run normal programs? Cha-ching. Hard Drive? Cha-Ching. Properly set up, it would have been more like $60K. In the scheme of things, the 12K was pretty darn cheap. Tormach makes it pretty modular, so if you wanted to save money, you could go bare bones and just get the machine and make the stand yourself and tool it with R8 stuff.