Tormach PNCNC 1100 Series 3 and a Kalamazoo H9AW

[Mike R]

In the followed me home category. The mill somehow has managed to disassemble itself, crawl downstairs to my basement, and reassemble itself (mostly) in the corner all the while displacing the ZAY12X that was there up into the garage.

This mill has most of the bells and whistles that Tormach sold - ATC with power draw bar and full enclosure. It came with the Tormach 5" vice, coolant pump and 17 TTS tool holders, including a tension/compression tapping head.

So far I've got it back up and running and setup / realigned the tool changer.
Next I'll need to check for level and tram, hopefully its still acceptable after all the disassembly and moving.

The enclosure just isn't setup yet - its a lot easier to access things without it so it will go on a bit later I think, but playing with my vices, it looks like the 6" will be too big to use with the enclosure (or doors need to be open). Seems like Tormach optimized around the 5" vice. My cheapo 4" doesn't provide any real size benefit except for being lighter to move.

This mill was also a package deal, and I got a Kalamazoo band saw with it. Model H9AW - 9"x16" capacity. Its just a bit too much saw for me to keep it (700lbs). I'll post up more pictures of it once I finish reassembling it from my cleanup efforts, I'll be posting it up for sale.
First pic is how it looked when I picked it up, next 2 are it partially disassembled in my garage, followed by a reassembly progress pic in the basement, initial placement and finally tonight's efforts of moving into what should be a final position. Lots of other stuff now needs to move (bench, drill press, Emco Compact5, wrench board, etc.).
Last pic is the Kalamazoo - its a bad shot as my garage was so full I couldn't stand properly to get it in frame!

 

[trevj]

WOW! Nice!

If you run coolant (and you really should, IMO!) get a aquarium bubbler in to the coolant tank so that any oils that might accumulate on the coolant, cannot make it into an anaerobic fungus infection. I have had the sorry job of cleaning some pretty hefty lily pads out of coolant tank over the years, and the bubbler is cheap!

By keeping the coolant aerated, you reduce the chance of that anaerobic bacteria taking over, and extend the life of both your machine, and the coolant! The byproducts of the stuff that grows in the oiled-over coolant, leaves the coolant slightly acidic, and that acidity will etch the ways and surfaces it contacts. It can also be very irritating if you are sensitive to it, causing itching and rash. Based on my experiences (mostly retching! Ugh!) you need to either run the machine every day, and occasionally deal with the oil (I used a 5 gallon bucket, that I would pump the coolant out in to at days end, and had a hole with a lag bolt screwed in to it, near the bottom of the bucket, allowing the oil to float to the top overnight, and then the coolant drained from the bottom, until the oil reached the hole. Made for very little wasted coolant beyond the acceptable losses from splash and spray.

A very good friend had a Tormach 1100, he was the one that put me on to the idea of the aquarium pump, he had his on a timer so it ran a couple minutes each hour, which was all it took!

For spray control, I used pieces of aluminum sheet bent at right angles, (Plexiglas would work too, though you need heat to bend it so) so that they could be stood on the table, each, two sides of the 'box'. Spray off a high RPM mill hit the shields and drained down the table drains, but if you duffed the program, and the machine did a rapid through said shields, all you had to do was replace them on the table... Hard lessons learned, about where the final cut took place, and ensuring that the cutter did not rapid through the side of the vise returning to "Home"!

 

[Mike R]

Thanks for the advice on coolant. I dabbled with coolant on my old mill and as I didn't use it much I did end up with an aquarium bubbler. Sounds like putting it on a timer is the way to go, will help reduce the evaporation it causes.
I got the enclosure mostly setup just to see how it fits. I'll need to take it off again to seal up the joints but that will make it a 2 person job for reassembly.
It was nice to see that the enclosure actually sticks out a bit in front and spaces the door out about another 6" so I can probably use my 6" vice.

I also now need to reposition the lights in the shop. The mill has 5 lights in the cabinet so you can see in there, but now the cabinet casts shadows on other benches and tools so I need to fix that. And the last "fix" before its truly operational is to extend the E-stop and power on button, its cord is about 1 foot too short with the enclosure on...