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- Nov 1, 2000
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- 28,365
Whats your opinion on this machine? Is there a better turnkey CNC mill for the price?
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Tormach PCNC 1100
- Thread starter Charlie Mike
- Start date
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- Jul 13, 2009
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- 21,855
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2000
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Yup. I've watched his videos.
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2012
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- 1,071
They are neat little machines.
If you have room, doing a CNC conversion on a Bridgeport or Clone would be a great option, or finding one of the older (but not too old) Bridgeport/cnc package combos. They are sturdy and versatile machines, and with a CNC, the ability to do heavy work cannot be underestimated.
If you are going to be doing primarily small work, the compact machines can be very enjoyable to run as long as you know how to scratch them behind the ears. One concern of mine is that if I was buying a CNC right now (which I only wish I had the budget for), I would go for the beefiest machine possible, as it would be a huge asset for pre-grind stock removal on large knives, and you want a dead solid and quick machine for cnc profiling or else it can take forever. On a machine like the Tormach, you might be looking at 1.5 days for a job that would take 3-4 hours on a full size machine (this could vary wildly, of course).
If you plan on cutting out scales and blade profiles on one-off or short run knives, and don't plan on doing any heavy profiling, then the Tormach could be a superb and enjoyable machine for you. They are very nice for what they are, but they do have limits due to their overall mass.
If you have room, doing a CNC conversion on a Bridgeport or Clone would be a great option, or finding one of the older (but not too old) Bridgeport/cnc package combos. They are sturdy and versatile machines, and with a CNC, the ability to do heavy work cannot be underestimated.
If you are going to be doing primarily small work, the compact machines can be very enjoyable to run as long as you know how to scratch them behind the ears. One concern of mine is that if I was buying a CNC right now (which I only wish I had the budget for), I would go for the beefiest machine possible, as it would be a huge asset for pre-grind stock removal on large knives, and you want a dead solid and quick machine for cnc profiling or else it can take forever. On a machine like the Tormach, you might be looking at 1.5 days for a job that would take 3-4 hours on a full size machine (this could vary wildly, of course).
If you plan on cutting out scales and blade profiles on one-off or short run knives, and don't plan on doing any heavy profiling, then the Tormach could be a superb and enjoyable machine for you. They are very nice for what they are, but they do have limits due to their overall mass.