Tormach PCNC 1100
From Asmbly Wiki
Asmbly owns a Tormach PCNC 1100 Series 3 CNC mill.
Members must complete the Tormach Class before using this tool
- 1.5hp R8 Spindle
- Table Size: 34" x 9.5"
- Table Slots: 3 Slots 5/8"
- Travel: 18" x 9.5" x 16.25" (X,Y,Z)
- Spindle Nose to Table: 17" maximum
- Spindle Center to Column: 11"
- Spindle Nose Diameter: 3 3/8"
- Max Workpiece : 500 lbs Maximum
Resources
Maintenance
This tool is owned by Asmbly Makerspace for the use of its members. Please contact the workshop committee if maintenance is required.
Purchased by the ATX Hackerspace in January of 2019.
Serial number 4848
Accessories
The mill now has the following accessories:
- Saunders Machine Works fixture plate
- How to use the fixture plate:
- The fixture plate allows for precision, repeatable placement of vises and fixtures, greatly improving the speed of making multiple parts.
- Treat the fixture plate as a precision instrument. It is precision ground out of 6061 Aluminum, and won't function correctly for long term use if it excessively nicked or scratched.
- The fixture plate is trammed to the mill table movement. Do not loosen or remove the low-profile screws in the fixture plate that secure it to the mill table, it is quite difficult to re-tram and in almost all cases, unnecessary to remove.
- Each hole in the fixture plate will accept a 1/2" dowel pin for alignment or work stop use, and is also threaded for standard 1/2-13 bolts.
- To preserve the integrity of the threads in all of these holes, each hole is plugged with a black rubber plug when not in use. You should not operate the mill with any exposed holes, they should always have either a plug, a dowel, or a bolt in them. This keeps chips and coolant out and makes cleanup much simpler.
- To remove and replace the plugs, there is hook / pick tool in the tool chest. Pierce the center dot on the plugs with the pick, twist, and pull up. This motion will eventually deteriorate the plugs. If they appear to be in need of replacement, more are available in the tool chest, but simply piercing the center dot doesn't render them inoperable.
- The fixture plate works best with fixtures or mod vises. If you want to use a standard machine vise, it will bolt to the fixture plate using 1/2-13 bolts.
- Because the fixture plate is uncoated aluminum, it is subject to galvanic corrosion if steel or cast iron is left attached to it long term. There are small tubes of dielectric grease available in the tool chest. Ideally a thin coat should be maintained on the vises if they are being left on the plate for an extended period of time. The bottom of the plate has also been coated to prevent corrosion between the plate and the table. One tube of grease is enough to coat the entire surface area of the fixture plate, so use it sparingly.
- How to use the fixture plate:
- 2 Saunders Machine Works Mod Vises
- These are the preferred vises to use with the fixture plate. For most use cases, they will provide a superior user experience to a traditional machine vise.
- These are also precision ground instruments. Every surface is machined and the fixed-side jaw can be used as a reliable work coordinate system origin.
- There is a short video tutorial that illustrates proper usage here
- Electronic Probe
- The probe is in a labeled hard case in the tool chest. The case contains the probe, cable, and a very easy to miss hex wrench that is used for adjusting concentricity.
- The probe has already been indicated and measured in PathPilot, and should be ready to use.
- To start, ALWAYS plug the USB-C cable into the probe first, and then the DIN5 cable into the accessory port on the machine electronics cabinet. The probe will light up green when the connection is good. DO NOT proceed if the light is not on. The machine will happily crash and ruin the probe if you run a probing routine without power to the probe.
- Next, put the probe in the collet and tighten the collet. Light / hand-tight is sufficient. It's a good practice to leave the spindle cover door open while the probe is in the collet, this guarantees you'll never spin up the machine with the probe in the collet.
- Once the cable is connected and the probe is installed, select tool 99 in the tool DRO. The probe is hard coded in PathPilot to be tool 99.
- Tormach has a good video overview of how to use the various probing routines here
