New Tormach 8L donation

Machine Shop
#1

For those of you who haven’t heard or knew yet, we had a new Tormach 8L donated to us. This is a full donation, it does however have stipulations to which we have agreed upon.

I would like to take to time to thank @hon1nbo Tails Hartnett for this donation.

If you see him at the space, thank him for it.

Here are the the stipulations.

  • an online class be made for learning the basics of the CAM and the machine to help alleviate training stress in advance of an in-person class. Donor is willing to assist with this. Requirement of a previous lathe training or integrated lathe basics is up to the discretion of the committee.
  • If the unit is ever disposed, it must be sold for fundraising purposes, with the proceeds earmarked to the DMS machine shop
  • within 12 months a demo program be made that can be used for demonstrating the machine on tours. How this is implemented is entirely within the discretion of the committee. It does not need to run for every tour session, but is at the discretion of tour guides should a trained operator be present. Should this prove too difficult to execute within 12 months, the ability to present a demonstration video next to the machine for tours will suffice.

Again on behalf of the Machine Shop committee & the Makerspace I appreciate the donation Tails.

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#2

check. taking notes and making slides. I’m planning to base the class on the conversational programming the machine offers which will lower the learning curve. Don’t kid yourself though - there are some machine specific concepts that some people may have a difficult time grasping, but it is still better than straight gcode programming. No timeline yet.

double check. once we get things figured out, we’ll decide on a quick and easy project which will hopefully serve as the class checkoff project, the demo project, or both.

cheers!

3 Likes
#3

Tails,

Thank you for making such a magnificent, and really amazing donation. It is very rare that some one purchases a new piece of equipment of such value specifically for the purpose of donating it to the DMS. A CNC lathe had been an aspirational goal of the committee for some time already; the attainment of which I had assumed was going to be years away yet.

But now, here it is, thanks to your generosity.

It will enhance the Machine shop’s capability, and further, it can contribute to the space’s efforts to impress prospective new members that the DMS is worth joining.

Thanks again for all that you have been doing for DMS and being such an excellent member.

Regards,
Bob

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#4

Is the Tormac controller similar to a Fanuc?
I have not set up a cnc lathe. Does the new lathe manual provide directions for the best tooling for particular types of turning operations. I will look on line for more information. If the programming interface made suggestions for the appropriate tooling it would mean that a set could go very fast.

#5

Short answer is no to both. It is meant to do conventional programs. You can directly load a gcode file but the tool setup is lame. I’ll be giving a short demo Saturday after the committee meeting

1 Like
#6

MANY thanks to Tails Hartnett for the donation. This is fantastic.
One of the items that we were adapting to a TL-1 at a city college program was

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this Dorian tool holder.
Would it be useful for the 8L???
Best,
Jim

#7

We were talking about trying gang tooling. It has the option in the software. I would not oppose to trying & having it for more advanced users.