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The Definitive Guide to Tormach

Hacks, Modifications and Upgrades

Tormach: The Chevy Small Blocks of the CNC World...

In the hobby and entry-level CNC machine world, Tormach's mills are ubiquitous. They may not be the highest performance machines out there--but they are a tremendous value and so they're like the Chevy Small Blocks in the engine world. It's not the same as a Ferrari V12, but you can keep one running cheap and build it up to be amazingly powerful. And like the Chevy Small Blocks, there are hot rodding options galore for the Tormachs.

This article is a compendium of the hacks, modifications, and upgrades I've been able to find out on the Internet for Tormach's machines. They include both DIY articles by various Tormach owners as well as commercial products from a variety of sources you can purchase to upgrade your Tormach. If you own a Tormach machine yourself, this list may be helpful if you choose to improve one of these already very good machines.

For those who are loath to modify a machine, I can only suggest that Hot Rodding is not for everyone, and any change you make is made at your own risk.  Some modifications are probably even dangerous to the operator and the machine. Yet, I think it's a shame not to take a shot at some minor modifications at least, for we are machinists, and machinists are the masters of their machines.  If anyone should be modifying them, it surely must be us.

Yes, by all means, wait until you've run your warranty out.  Perhaps start with some of the many fine modifications and updates Tormach sells which will not void your warranty.   Add a tool changer or a powered drawbar.  Upgrade the coolant system in some way.  But when you're done with all that, explore the possibilities that are available.

If you come across a good item for this series that I've missed, drop me a note via email (bob@cnccookbook.com), and I'll see about adding to this list. I want to keep the list to Tormach-specific items, so even though there's a lot of cool tooling and accessories for CNC's out there, this article is only about items specifically designed for the Tormachs.

 

Tormach Factory Upgrades

Tormach Automatic Tool Changer...

Tormach themselves are constantly improving the machines. My PCNC 1100 is a "Series Three". So far, Tormach has a great track record of making it fairly economical to keep older machines upgraded to the latest factory spec. That shows a tremendous commitment to the installed base and it's not something every company will do.

In addition, there is a tremendous line of factory bolt-on accessories such as the powered drawbar, 4th Axis, and Automatic Tool Changer I've pictured above.

I'm not going to spend time documenting all the Tormach Factory Upgrades that are available, but I do recommend that if you're looking to improve your Tormach, you start by seeing whether Tormach themselves have an upgrade for the area you're interested in. If they do, you can be sure it is well made and well engineered.

Just check the Tormach web site for details of what's available in the way of upgrades.

Tormach OEM Upgrades

These companies design and sell upgrades and accessories for Tormachs.

Santa Cruz Electronics: TTS Racking System and More

John Bower's Santa Cruz Electronics is the local stocking dealer for Tormach. He's practically right down the street from CNCCookbook so John and I get together pretty often. Being an avid tinkerer and machinist, John makes a fair number of interesting gizmos for Tormachs. For example, he makes the nice anodized ER Collet wrenches that Tormach sells on their site.

Lately he is readying a batch of very cool upgrades and he has promised I will get to test the prototypes. There's more news coming soon on this, but I couldn't resist teasing you a bit up front.

"The Rack"

I love John's TTS Racking systems. I brought some crude drawings of an early concept for this to lunch and John took the idea and built an absolutely gorgeous product. It totally organizes all your TTS holders right on the machine and makes them super convenient to access and use. He also has a bench top version, as well as a line of accessories to go with The Rack.

We did a full review of the racking system on the CNCCookbook blog.

SCE's Enclosure-mounted TTS Holder rack is awesome!

You could install more TTS storage on the right hand side or this nifty touch screen and keyboard setup...

Coolant Nozzle Upgrade

John's also coming out with this sweet multi-nozzle upgrade to the Tormach flood coolant system:

Installation is very sanitary and compatible with the stock system. Looks sharp and works great!

Stay tuned for more details on The Rack, coolant upgrade, and other SCE Tormach accessories coming soon!

Tosa Tool's Tooling Plates, and More

Modular Fixturing with a Tooling Plate...

Dan Bye's Tosa Tool makes some great enhancements for Tormach. My favorite is his line of Modular Fixturing and Tooling Plates. Having a Tooling Plate can make set up much faster and easier as you can just drop fixtures onto the plate and be assured they will register accurately to the same position as when you last used them with very tight tolerances. For more on Modular Fixturing, see our Total Guide to CNC Milling Machine Workholding.

Mandala Rosework's Stepper Relocation Kit for 4th Axis

Mandala's kit helps you get your 4th axis over to the right side of the table where it can't interfere with tool changer operation.

Millfast Products: Electronic Accessories Such as Joysticks for Tormach

Fancy a Joystick instead of Tormach's default Jog Shuttle? Millfast has got you covered!

They have a variety of cool accessories including, joysticks, remote e-stops, and more. I purchased the little gizmo that lets you keep both a probe and an electronic toolsetter connected at the same time. Works great!

 

DIY Tormach Upgrades and Accessories

TTS-Related Hacks, Mods, and Upgrades

Nice TTS rack bolted to control cabinet...

Engrave a serial number on your toolholders to refer to in the tool table...

Lever Operated Drawbar for Tormachs

Plans available from SDM Fabricating...

Full Arduino-Based Toolchanger Project

Very well done. I especially like the diagonal approach of the ATC to the spindle, which is similar to many industrical VMC designs. It gets the ATC as far out of being in the way as possible when not doing a tool change.

Enclosure Projects

Tormach's CNC Machine enclosures are extremely well made, they work well, and I feel they're an excellent value. But that's not saying they're cheap. There are a number of folks out in the world who've built their own enclosures:

- University of Iowa's Grok Labs Enclosure. The little box at top left provides clearance for a robotic arm (STRobotics) they'll be interfacing to the Tormach. The enclosure uses 80/20 extrusions and the article says the raw materials cost about $1800.

- G-Made lights up a Tormach lathe enclosure.

- Jason Hughes's video shows the professional looking enclosure he put together along with a bunch of other great tips for 440 owners.

Coolant Upgrades

Coolant can be the lifeblood of your CNC system (along with way oil), and upgrading the Tormach coolant system is especially helpful if you're trying to use the machine for production and the chips keep piling up. These mods are also known to improve surface finish (see John Grimsmo's filter video where he shows finish issues on his knives that a filter cleared up) and tool life.

A variety of upgrades are possible. The stock coolant reservoir can run dry pretty easily, so increasing reservoir capacity is common. Putting in a bigger coolant pump, adding more and better nozzles, check valves, washdown systems, and a variety of other possibilities are available.

John Grimsmo adapted a household water filter to clean up his coolant...

- John Grimsmo filters his coolant. This is an excellent upgrade because it removes fine chips that are otherwise circulating in the coolant and can clog lines (especially nozzle tips) and even damage parts as John shows in the video. Adding a filter is super easy and ought to be one of the first coolant upgrades you try.

- Grimsmo Pump and Reservoir Upgrade.

- War Machine LLC adds a coolant filter and some other upgrades. Nice section of the video where he actually traps particles coming out of the coolant nozzle. Really makes the point of how much trash is suspended in the coolant flow without a filter.

- G-Made CNC upgrades his coolant system with a filter, bigger reservoir, and more. His chip tray on the bigger coolant reservoir has some clever ideas.

- Nice multi-nozzle upgrade on CNCZone.

Chris Anglin's video on why he needed such a high flow coolant system on his Tormach...

- Chris Anglin's Thread on Upgrading his coolant system. Chris did a bunch of work, adding a multi-nozzle setup, 1/2" hose upgrade (larger diameter), bigger pump, larger reservoir with high flow drain mod, and more.

- Brian Carmichael's Coolant System Upgrades: Multiple coolant nozzles, 5/8" ID lines, a solenoid operated air-only system, and I particularly like his washdown system for cleaning up the machine after a big job.

- Bigger Pump and More Coolant Upgrade: From that fellow that did the 5 HP upgrade (see below).

- Coolant Slinger: Planning a coolant system upgrade? You might want to keep that extra coolant out of your spindle bearings by adding a slinger. This one was a press-on UHMW piece.

- Tramp Oil Skimmer: Coolant picks up way oil quickly, and if you don't get the oil skimmed from your coolant it'll soon be a stinky mess. This Tramp Oil Skimmer does the job cheap and cheerfully.

Powerful Tramp Oil Skimmer is easy to build and does the job...

- Coolant Rings & Collars: Some say these are absolutely the best nozzle arrangement for clearing chips consistently.

 

Spindle and Motor Upgrade Mods

Motor Fan Balancing

A number of folks have reported improved surface finish as well as quieter operation by either balancing the motor fan or removing it and using an electrical fan. Your motor does need a fan of some sort to stay cool, so if you undertake one of these modifications, make sure your motor doesn't overheat!

- Motor Fan Balancing: Nice article on balancing the fan to improve surface finishes.

- Electric Fan Mod: Video has a bunch of mods, electric fan is at 8:34. Quieter and pushses a lot more air. Also helps cool the spindle.

- Control an Electric Fan from the VFD. This pages discusses how.

Eccentric rings so you can balance the rotating assembly...

- Rebalancing the Spindle Pulleys: Here's a fascinating thread about rebalancing the Tormach spindle pulleys to improve surface finish. One of the neatest solutions was the eccentric rings pictured to make balancing a little easier.

Rigid Tapping

Rigid Tapping on a Tormach? Heck yeah! You'll need to mount an encoder to the spindle, and you'll need to be running PathPilot, but it's totally doable as this CNCZone thread demonstrates.

Spindle Speed Increases

- A sneaky way to run your spindle at 2x rpms: Try this sort of thing at your own risk as you may fry the spindle bearings going too fast.

Auxilliary High Speed Spindle

Small cutters and engraving especially can really benefit from much higher spindle speeds than the Tormachs allow. A time-honored way to solve this problem is to mount an auxilliary high speed spindle alongside the machine's main spindle. Here are articles about how to do that.

Kontraptionist High Speed Spindle: Mounting a 24,000 rpm spindle to the Tormach.

- Video of some gorgeous engraving also shows his aux high speed spindle on his Tormach. Vid is kind of long.

Power Upgrades

- Adding a 5 HP motor to a Tormach PCNC 1100. Great thread! It's a long read with a lot of naysayers but the conversion looks quite successful in the end.

Workholding Hacks, Mods, and Upgrades

G-Made CNC's Pneumatic Collet Closer...

- G-Made CNC's Pneumatic Collet Closer for the Tormach Lathe. Add an air cylinder to the manual collet closer, grab a bar puller, and your Tormach lathe can automatically feed multiple parts from bar stock. The project is documented in multiple videos. I've linked the first above. The others are: Machining the Bracket Plate, Part 3 - Assembly and Installation, Part - 4, and the final Finishing Up Installment.

- G-Made Bar Puller to go with the pneumatic collet closer. This is a two-part series with the second part giving final details of how to control it all with g-code.

Path Pilot for Non-Tormachs (aka Modifying Path Pilot)

This is a useful wiki describing how to get Path Pilot to work with non-Tormachs. How is that helpful to Tormach users?

Well, let's suppose you've decided you want to upgrade your Tormach's rapids motion, perhaps by adding servo motors. You're going to be faced with modifying Path Pilot to make all that work. This resource could be a big help to you in doing that.

Here's a tutorial with more similar information on the LinuxCNC forums.

Other Hacks, Mods, and Updates

- John Grimsmo makes his own touch probe tips. Because those suckers break often and are expensive!

- G-Made mounts a GoPro camera on the Tormach Slant Bed lathe.

- Machine Rigidity Upgrade: This mod suggests a measureable rigidity increase by bolting a thicker access plate to the Tormach column.

- Interesting discussion of the increased accuracy of optical limit switches. In particular, the idea of using a slotted switch on the ballscrew is also interesting.