Well, what do you think "flood" coolant means? It's designed for flooding your shop :) It's not a bug, it's a feature™

Very fair comments Chris. My Tormach lathe and mill have served me very well; low cost and low maintenance, but the issues you bring up are valid. Good for people to know what they are getting into before purchasing any particular brand. Ave's commentary on his Haas also is excellent to know the pros and cons.

Thanks for your thoughts on the machine! They were helpful.

My 770 makes me money doing side job work. It has been absolutely great. You can't buy a HAAS and then have it set there not running for a few days while you take care of other life issues. With investments like that you have to start worrying about spindle time. You either use it, or you don't make money. A Tormach 770 can be purchased as a personal tool. The controls are excellent for manual work as well as producing parts. So I can do the custom work I do easily. I can either modify an existing part, or make a replacement part, as needed. Automated machining or manual control. They have their place. If I was going to start doing runs of hundreds of parts and do them regularly? I'd buy a small HAAS, or a Brother... something with at least 10x the weight and horsepower. But do you DO that kind of work? A dozen good custom jobs and the 770 core mill is paid off. I didn't take out a loan the Tormach was paid cash. No payments. Spindles can be installed yourself without a service call. Even if you stretch really, really hard to get into a small $35k HAAS mini mill how much will maintenance cost? How much more will tooling cost? Do you need big power run to your garage or shop? Do you need a new concrete pad poured under the machine? How much will the shipping and rigger cost to deliver and position the machine? It goes on and on... The Tormach? Shipping is now included in the price when you buy. You can move it with a pallet jack. You can put it up on the stand or your work bench with an engine hoist. Pretty much free compared to the other options. The difference? It's light, it's slow, but it's cheap to own and gets jobs done that you would not want to do or just cannot do on a manual mill. I make mostly titanium parts on my 770. It gets it done and I never have to think about issues like efficient use of spindle time.

Very good review. Thanks for the info!

Thanks for your insights.

what pump did you use to upgrade the coolant system? I have a 770 and completely agree that I get wet parts and no chip evacuation lol

I've had my Tormach for about 7 months and have the exact same thoughts. Although I haven't had any leaks except for the giant 1" hole in the base where the coolant hose comes through. I'm making a plug with an o-ring to seat between the hose and base to eliminate that. Otherwise, I'm a happy camper.

Very informative! Thank you!

I have a 770 S3 in a basement shop and agree. Use Nashua black plumbers tape/wrap from HD on seams. Holds up well to coolant so far (3 months). Black, stretchy and about 75mm width. Also starting to use high feed cutters as possible solution to deflection since they produce a more axial force and less lateral. Bought DiJet 3 tooth 0.5" and Kyocera Raptor mini 5 tooth 1.0" to use on 420PH mold cavity inserts. Promising so far.

New machines are shiny and nice!

Very well said, Chris!

Honestly, this is going to sound weird but you are just very interesting to listen too. I would very happily listen to you talk about different kinds of barks on trees in the amazon rain forest.

What horse power is your new flood coolant? I have started with a small mill like yours (not Tormach) and I have seen ALL and I mean all the issues you ahve gone through. Except fro the collet holding I have an BT30 taper. However there is so much in what you have said that no one will understand till they try to do it as well. I subed because of this video. Thank you for making it.

Did you consider to buy an Syil x7 combo?

Great vid. Thanks Chris.

"Mine is nice and tight" - they all say this before you get to check it out :D

Always inspiring Chris

Hey Chris, nice vid, I been looking at getting a tormach, good machines If you on a tight budget. Do you still have your DIY VMC

I've had several suboptimal experiences while buying used machines. I'm 0 for 3 on successfully purchasing an old machine that runs and stays running. Fortunately I have been able to part them out to make more money than I spent on them, but if you count the endless hours I've spent crawling around greasy machine cabinets with a multimeter I've run a huge loss. My advice for small startup manufacturers is buy new cnc only. Old manual machines can be had that work great, but old cnc is usually a disaster. If you can't get by with manual machines, consider having somebody else make your parts for you until you've got the business case to buy your own cnc equipment.

I know what you mean brother. I have the 770 first,then later i got a haas mini mill. there is no comparison at all. I now just look at the 770..its pretty as it sit there i run it to oil once in a while but IT HAS NO BALLS AND NO TOOL CHANGER...

Great review. Thanks

Well hopefully that Tormach serves you well enough that you can get a new shop and then get that HAAS ;)

Great video Chris. Fair and detailed. Cheers, Jason

Hi Chris, Nice little review :) What's next in your dreams? Speedio or Robodrill :P ?

Great review. What kind of parts do you make? Do you have a website?

oh coolant just has a way of breaking down and sneaking by seals, you can sand and whipe with alcohol beforehand, makes no difference xD been there

Interesting not an owner of a Tormach or a HAAS these are interesting machines, they both get the job done. Be proud it is making you money so it is an option afforded you. Smart man not moving out of your garage $$$$$ this will keep your overhead down we work from home but we used to be in a really big building. Have fun.

ChrisIf you ever do any maint. on the machine(GIB adjustment)specially will you film it? Thanks

Useful, honest review. Thank you.

a haas mini mill will fit wherever an 1100 will fit. they run off single phase. might want to revisit that one.

The pin isn't necessary. I've got a BP with the pin removed, it tightens and loosens just fine. If you have the auto-drawbar, it's a moot point on the Tormach. Next time it shears, remove the carnage and truck on without it.

As for your tolerance problems, did you follow the instructions for making sure everything is calibrated? For example, adding the 4th axis to this machine comes with specific instructions on centering the platter, because much of the machine itself needs to be calibrated physically, especially after it’s been shipped. And why is your machine crashing when it has crash sensors? Is this an older machine or something, it sounds like you’re either missing certain parts or it’s just human error. I’ve been within half thousandths tolerances as long as I’m not trying to set speeds higher than it’s rated for, what’s the purpose of having a 3 phase machine if you’re just prototyping, because the 1100mx is plenty capable of making aerospace quality parts, as long as you thoroughly followed all the instructions, and you don’t try setting everything at maximum speeds, and get the automatic tool changer, etc, there’s no reason it should take hours to make a part, especially with the insanely easy to use software. I guess if you don’t know how to quickly design parts, that could eat up some time, also depending on your fixturing, and part sizes, you can make several parts at once

Syil would be the middle ground between tormach and haas

Next time the pin in the spindle breaks, just take it out and don't replace it.

Good to hear honest, and frank end-user feedback and review info. Anyone else get here from an AvE vidjayo??

Honest!

Did I see a Planck enclosure!? RMK

Devil's advocate... which would give you the most productivity for similar money: one Haas, or two Tormachs?

Syil will give you more machine at the same price, maybe even less money.

I can relate to your Laguna troubles. We bought a Laguna CNC plasma table at school and have had an absolutely terrible experience. The controller is in badly translated English, and some of the information we received from the company regarding settings has just been flat out incorrect. Service has been slow and not really helpful, even for a new machine. Definitely experiencing buyer's remorse. Would not recommend.

Stopped watching at "crashes will happen no matter how careful you are". Sorry, lost all credibility there.

Tormach is Chinese junk. Idk why you would even waste your time