So a few weeks ago I found a Tormach for sale and decided I would add it to the collection. The machines original owner passed away, but he was the first owner and was a EDM machinist so it seemed reasonable to expect it would be in good shape. The machine overall is. in fact, in good shape. It didn't come with a lot of tooling, but it did have a few TTS holders. The guy who had owned it used it as the basis for a hobby EDM (I think he just used the drives to control the XY table), it has minimal wear that I can tell. The paint is peeling all over the place but I think that's just from Tormach doing a shitty job of prepping the surface before painting. If you run flood coolant systems its reasonable to expect the paint to come off of most machines.
Because of the dimensions of the machine, I had to take it apart when picking up, then further disassemble it to get it into my basement. If you do something like this I strongly suggest taking lots of pictures and notes.
I looked at what Tormach said about moving these machines, they sell a kit to disassemble and move it, which maybe would have been nice but not really required. I made sure that any surfaces that were critical were covered in OSB (which is part of the kit they sell too), and went a little further than they do on disassembly so that I could move it easily(ish) myself. The weights they say for each component are either for a later generation of machine (this one is 2011), or a complete lie. My guess is the machine is somewhere in the range of 500lbs WITH the stand. I should've weighed it but I did't bother.
Once back home, it was time to reassemble and inspect. The ways are all in very good shape, I put it together with a good dose of Vactra2 on all sliding surfaces. Tormach uses a Turcite like product of the ways, which I guess makes sense? I don't really like it as I think its too soft and things could get embedded in it but they've made enough of these I suppose to know. The oil galleries on the ways appear to be hand carved, and they did a shitty job of that, as well I dont think that this is the best pattern, generally speaking straight grooves in line with the movement of ways causes improper wear but maybe because of the Turcite it isn't an issue.
One of the oil lines was broken which went to the Z axis ballnut. They are similar to what a Noga mini-cool uses, a plastic hose wrapped in stainless steel. Not the end of the world to fix, but there isn't much extra length to the hose. After it was all fixed up I completely assembled the machine and jogged it around. I managed to home the machine, but the motors were hooked to the wrong axis (X and Y were reversed) and when Y (which was really X) tried to home, it overtravelled as it wasn't looking for input on that limit switch (which is retarded to ignore that input). I didn't realize it right away but it actually allowed some of the balls out of the ballnut! I had to make sure I had all the balls and disassemble the table again, and re-pack the nut which I wasn't very happy about. It appears that when it was assembled they actually put more balls than required (I think its common for them to just bath the nuts in balls and then put in the wiper) as there is space between the wiper and re-circulation port. Once it was back together there is no jamming, and no issues so I believe I got away with it (luckily). I will be putting a hard stop in that direction since it homes that way (which is fucking dumb), and I'd suggest anyone else who ends up with one of these things does the same.
After I had it all together I made a few manual cuts, decking off some hot rolled steel with the standard face mill I have so many of and never use. Surprisingly this worked very well and left a VERY good surface finish. I also did a little slotting with one of the endmills that I had kicking around (likely quite dull) which worked well.
All in all I am surprised that it works this well, its not a VMC but it will do for little things that I want to do at home. My honest opinion so far is I wouldn't pay what Tormach wants for this machine new. Maybe after some use I will change my mind but I know a fully decked 770 is quite a ways up there in price and starts to come into line with VMCs from China (small ones, but real VMC's as far as weight and HP) or even a Haas mini-mill.
I plan to add flood coolant and a complete enclosure to keep the chips in their place and its pretty much mandatory to have flood coolant if you want to do slotting and profiling in aluminum.
I dont know when I will get to building the enclosure and any other accessories but I'll add to this whenever I do.
Because of the dimensions of the machine, I had to take it apart when picking up, then further disassemble it to get it into my basement. If you do something like this I strongly suggest taking lots of pictures and notes.
I looked at what Tormach said about moving these machines, they sell a kit to disassemble and move it, which maybe would have been nice but not really required. I made sure that any surfaces that were critical were covered in OSB (which is part of the kit they sell too), and went a little further than they do on disassembly so that I could move it easily(ish) myself. The weights they say for each component are either for a later generation of machine (this one is 2011), or a complete lie. My guess is the machine is somewhere in the range of 500lbs WITH the stand. I should've weighed it but I did't bother.
Once back home, it was time to reassemble and inspect. The ways are all in very good shape, I put it together with a good dose of Vactra2 on all sliding surfaces. Tormach uses a Turcite like product of the ways, which I guess makes sense? I don't really like it as I think its too soft and things could get embedded in it but they've made enough of these I suppose to know. The oil galleries on the ways appear to be hand carved, and they did a shitty job of that, as well I dont think that this is the best pattern, generally speaking straight grooves in line with the movement of ways causes improper wear but maybe because of the Turcite it isn't an issue.
One of the oil lines was broken which went to the Z axis ballnut. They are similar to what a Noga mini-cool uses, a plastic hose wrapped in stainless steel. Not the end of the world to fix, but there isn't much extra length to the hose. After it was all fixed up I completely assembled the machine and jogged it around. I managed to home the machine, but the motors were hooked to the wrong axis (X and Y were reversed) and when Y (which was really X) tried to home, it overtravelled as it wasn't looking for input on that limit switch (which is retarded to ignore that input). I didn't realize it right away but it actually allowed some of the balls out of the ballnut! I had to make sure I had all the balls and disassemble the table again, and re-pack the nut which I wasn't very happy about. It appears that when it was assembled they actually put more balls than required (I think its common for them to just bath the nuts in balls and then put in the wiper) as there is space between the wiper and re-circulation port. Once it was back together there is no jamming, and no issues so I believe I got away with it (luckily). I will be putting a hard stop in that direction since it homes that way (which is fucking dumb), and I'd suggest anyone else who ends up with one of these things does the same.
After I had it all together I made a few manual cuts, decking off some hot rolled steel with the standard face mill I have so many of and never use. Surprisingly this worked very well and left a VERY good surface finish. I also did a little slotting with one of the endmills that I had kicking around (likely quite dull) which worked well.
All in all I am surprised that it works this well, its not a VMC but it will do for little things that I want to do at home. My honest opinion so far is I wouldn't pay what Tormach wants for this machine new. Maybe after some use I will change my mind but I know a fully decked 770 is quite a ways up there in price and starts to come into line with VMCs from China (small ones, but real VMC's as far as weight and HP) or even a Haas mini-mill.
I plan to add flood coolant and a complete enclosure to keep the chips in their place and its pretty much mandatory to have flood coolant if you want to do slotting and profiling in aluminum.
I dont know when I will get to building the enclosure and any other accessories but I'll add to this whenever I do.
