In the fall of 2006 I purchased a Tormach PCNC1100 milling machine. I had owned my Sherline CNC mill for 8 years, and spent at least as much time tweaking the Sherline as actually using it. I realized that I really needed something more sturdy. I would have settled for a machine the size of the Sherline, but stiffer and with zero-backlash ballscrews, but when the Tormach came on the market with an impressively low price for the capability I revised my plans.
I bought the basic mill, the TTS quick-change tooling system, the deluxe base with coolant pump, the Tormach 5" vise, the high-speed Proxxon spindle and the LCD/keyboard mounting arm. The Tormach is bone-stock, and I am spending my time making parts with it, after the learning curve with its Mach2-based control software. I had previously only used DOS-based CNC Pro and TurboCNC.
It is a joy to run multiple-tool programs, only changing the pre-mounted tools when called for. I accurately measured the X and Y offsets of the Proxxon relative to the primary spindle, so I can incorporate toolpaths using the auxiliary spindle too, only needing to touch down a tool in the Proxxon for length.
The Tormach is stiff and very fast relative to the Sherline. It rapids at 65 in/min and has constant-velocity cutting (no pausing at arc quadrant points.) It is also very accurate.
One thing I did not buy from Tormach was the PC. Mach2 needs a fairly capable PC running Windows XP. Tormach wanted $827 for a low-end Dell PC with the software pre-installed, but I got the same machine (a Dimension B110 with 2.53 GHz Celeron processor, 512MB of memory and a 17" LCD monitor) on sale directly from Dell for $406 plus shipping. I tweaked the XP install (Tormach provides detailed instructions on how to slim down the install for optimum Mach2 performance) and loaded the control software myself.
Shortly before I sold my Sherline mill, I took a picture of it on the Tormach's table for a sense of scale.
Here's an 18MB video of the Tormach machining with flood coolant, with a couple of my table mods (added drain hole on the left end, tubing to route the outlet of both drains to the left of the base.)
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