While it is just another Chinese built benchtop mill I think you will find that they designed it from the ground up including the CNC system to their own specs so it is quite different from most of the other benchtop machines available out there. It has a loyal following and some of the pictures I have seen of work made on them looks pretty good it is after all just another Chinese benchtop machine albeit with some intelligent design thrown in and some decent backing from the company. Don't expect any sort of on site repair or troubleshooting from them not at that price point. If you have a problem they will warranty parts but it is ultimately up to you to fix it and there have been bad ones come out of the gate. I did hear of one model that had so many problems they took it back and replaced it with another one but to my knowledge that has only happened once or twice. There are now several chinese built CNC machines that are similar in design that compete for the top slot in their niche market. Don't be fooled into thinking it is ANY sort of competition for a real machining center it is quite light duty and slow compared to even the wimpiest VMC's. There is no rigid tapping and it only has like 2hp spindle or so that is belt driven. It is all stepper based which is not a problem as it is designed properly apparently and their newest gen 3 model is smoother and faster than the rest. They fit into a price point that was sorta wide open as the next step up typically costs quite a bit more if you have to have new machinery. IMHO the best thing about Tormach is their ingenuity and willingness to keep producing tools and fixtures for their machines that make it quite interesting and capable for what it is. They have built a market where there really was none and done quite well with it so far. With the onset of other competing platforms it is getting more competition for their customers now as many have gone with some of the newer offerings from other suppliers. Personally if I were to spend anywhere near the money necessary to properly setup a Tormach machine I would just buy a used VMC and try to get a good one. I sorta did that myself and unfortunately wound up having to do a retrofit but it is still way ahead of the tormach in power accuracy and money spent even after the retrofit. Your mileage may vary. Peace
Pete On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 6:37 AM, andy pugh <bodge...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 28 January 2014 04:16, Gregg Eshelman <g_ala...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > Is the Tormach mill a design unique to that company or do they take some > > off the shelf Chinese mill and wrap it up all fancy with added parts? > > http://www.tormach.com/our_story.html > > Seems to state that the parts are made in Asia to their own designs. > > Castings are fairly cheap, there is no real reason not to have custom > ones made. > > -- > atp > If you can't fix it, you don't own it. > http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > WatchGuard Dimension instantly turns raw network data into actionable > security intelligence. It gives you real-time visual feedback on key > security issues and trends. Skip the complicated setup - simply import > a virtual appliance and go from zero to informed in seconds. > > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=123612991&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WatchGuard Dimension instantly turns raw network data into actionable security intelligence. It gives you real-time visual feedback on key security issues and trends. Skip the complicated setup - simply import a virtual appliance and go from zero to informed in seconds. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=123612991&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
