[LeeWay]

It wastes much less travel mounted up top.
In the 1st image, that is the lowest the X will go.
second image is the highest. It looses about 3 inches or so.
The 4th image with the tool post top mounted may only loose an inch.
Image 7 shows the upper travel limit. I can easily put a turning, threading tool there in place of the knurler and then a few boring bar style tools in between. If you needed to turn bigger parts or parts with the tail stock, those upper and lower plate installations and positions might come in real handy. You would basically have to remove the tools on the Tslot plate and just use the QCTP. I don't plan on getting a tail stock, but then again if the need arises....

[MRM RCModels]

Well, I didn't quite get all the parts in, but had enough stuff to get the closer working. If I had it to do over, I might use a little larger line. This is 1/8". It is just a pain to work with. I have two small leaks I will have to fix. I'm sure it was caused by cutting with scissors rather than a sharp knife.
Also the closer operates backwards to the on screen button. I just have to swap the control lines on the cylinder to fix that. All in all, it works great. Just as I had anticipated. The only modification I had to do was drill and tap one hole for the air regulator. Not bad at all.
Here are some pictures.

Looking real sharp there! Been eyeing one of these for a while

Sent from my K011 using Tapatalk

[LeeWay]

Thanks a bunch. I looked at one of your lathe videos yesterday and you mentioned you were going to get a better one sometime. I would say one of these would fit that bill.

A couple more pictures below.
I was going about setting up the tools and remembered the boring bar holder that comes with the QCTP kit is a lot bigger than the others.
I installed it and then slid the Tslot riser and gang tool holder up to it. That is also a very fast way to square up the tool post. It was right on when I checked it. If you push the tools all the way to the top of the Tslot table, you would not be able to use that boring bar holder.
Second picture is pretty much where those tools will live for production parts. My rigid taps in my TTS tool holders for the mill will fit into these holders. So I have a good selection of rigid taps already. I have one other heavy duty tool holder coming from Tormach.
It will most likely hold a turning tool. It will be down lower on the table. I may buy one more tool holder to fit on top of the riser block. Then I will try my hand at machining my own for the other couple tool positions. A 2" x 3" hunk of steel should make a real nice holder.

[LeeWay]

This evening I cobbled together a solenoid and elcheapo regulator just to operate the puller. I don't trust the regulator. It might be okay, but it would only pull this bar intermittently. One time out of three pulls. That won't do. It says it has 120 PSI on it. They do say the operating range is 15 PSI to 140 PSI. I could not get the fingers to move until 60 PSI though. I may just have to turn it up some more. I ran coolant through it the other day, so it could probably use a shot of oil. I will verify that when the new parts come in Monday. Since I got the puller actuating, I went ahead and set the G54 and the tool offsets. I treated the puller like a drill. It's Z position is about an 1/8" past the material when closed. This bar is 9/16" brass, so I don't know how it will do when I turn a different diameter. Trial and error I suppose.

Getting closer to actually making a part.

The way I am using this puller may not work for everyone. I will not be using coolant for my production parts. When I am not running production parts, I will not need the puller. So just plug in the one I need at the time. Not sure how this type puller would work if I needed coolant for production. I would probably have to go with a static puller. One for each size bar. That might not be so bad as long as you remember to change the puller when you change the collet.

[LeeWay]

I can see one thing that will be nice to have on this lathe. That is a chip and part trough of sorts. These brass chips are short and hard and pack tight when they can pile up. They have been landing in the groove at the top of the bottom bed slide. They would eventually eat away at the way wiper on the bottom.

I have these bolt holes here that are now unused. I will install a bracket in there and then basically a slide that goes to the bottom of the X slide. There are a couple screws down there I can use to mount it to. That will let the bulk of the chips and parts drop into the pan. It would be down low enough not to interfere with the spindle.
Not sure about when a chuck is installed.
Easily removed though.
Something like this is what I have in mind.

[LeeWay]

I haven't tried the delrin on here yet, but I know on my little lathe, sometimes it gets the strings hanging on around the drill bit.
I may have to setup an air blast behind the bit I use for delrin. It can use the same valve as the bar puller. I think I have come to terms with just losing a bit of material and cut a groove for the puller and just face off the next part on some parts. It won't matter on other parts.
I did receive some more parts in today. I am going to mount a plate on the front where the regulator is now. That way I can attach all the air stuff to it.
Now I know I will need a lubricator on each system. 2 of them. I am going to hold off buying those just now. Make sure my ducks are lined up.

Also Tormach recommends coating all the raw steel parts with something like WD40. I do use it in the shop, but not for rust prevention.
I have some Boesfeld T9 too, but do not really like the film it leaves. What I have been using lately on the mill to some extent and the lathe is penetrating oil in the spray can. So far that is working well.
One other thing I will have to look at is the oil lines. It seems a few of them may have a minor leak. I haven't put a wrench on any of them, but will.
The front manifold is where I noticed the drips.

[LeeWay]

I think I will need to remove or relocate the chip cover door bumper seen in the last photo's. It can get in the way for some tool setups. Especially if they are not all close to the same plane in Z. Case in point, My right hand turning tool will not reach out as far as the other tools. When it might be cutting close to the spindle nose, the bar puller is into the bumper bracket. I have a couple ideas for better bumper placement. So again I ordered more tools and another holder.
I did not have any left hand turning tools. They will be beneficial on the bottom end with the standard lathe tool holders I bought.
Tormach says they are the correct height for this lathe and they are correct. Dead center for a 3/4" turning tool.
So I ordered the second one.
These two block will hold left hand tools. One threading tool and one turning tool.
My right hand tools will be mounted into the QCTP holders and registered in that position for manual tool changes. Those two tools and the spotting drill will fill out my production setup.
Rather than use the parting tool to make the groove for the bar puller, I will use the threading tool. In fact a small groove like that in most of my finished parts will not hurt anything at all, so no need to even face them once parted. Not to remove the groove, but it will need a slight facing to get precise lengths. I don't think the puller in conjunction with the closer will be very accurate. Maybe a pull, release push action might be more accurate. I guess at some point I will find out. That is if I can quit ordering stuff for it.


My sage advice to any new prospective owner is to take about a week and figure out what you need and exactly how everything will layout. The type and style of tools you want to use. Then throw that out and get one of everything.

[LeeWay]

When the machine is homed, it stops just shy of putting the puller into that bracket when a turning tool is aligned with the edge of the table. It should not be mounted like that, but my left hand turning tool is on it's way. I'll make the change then.
I removed the bracket and bumper anyway. It really should not be there. It's not there on the turret model with the full enclosure. I figured out a much better place to put one I think. I just used a piece of nylon rod and cut a slice into it with the bandsaw. Then just slip it in place right below the gas strut mount. It stays in position fine.
I think maybe a piece of rubber might work even better. The original bumper is a bit too short I think.
Again no modifications to the machine for this. I'll get some pictures soon.


Also just noticed Tormach now has a waterproof LED lighting kit available for this. I think I am good with the HF model.
35428 - Light Kit for Tormach 15L Slant-PRO

[LeeWay]

A few more pictures for an update.
I made a stainless steel chip chute for this. It is just .05" SS. I could have used a little thicker stuff, But I think this will work great. No clearance issue. No modification to the machine.
I also took a few pictures of the nylon bumper I made.
It is now out of the way.

[LeeWay]

Now another issue maybe someone can help with. I am trying to use conversational to drill these parts with tool 2. It is a 1/4" drill bit. I keep getting an error message. The numbers are fairly close to what I see in the manual, so I really don't know what is wrong. I have tried negative numbers in spots, but it gets worse.

Gotta be something simple.

[vertcnc]

That's a pretty small line going to the bar puller. In theory it should only effect speed, but maybe you could try increasing to 1/4" and see if it changes anything. BTW, sweet setup totally jealous.

[LeeWay]

Thanks a bunch. I am going to replace all the small line with 1/4" stuff. It may solve some of the minor issues I am having. The puller does have a set screw that will adjust closing speed. Right now it is instant close. For the closer, I am just using 80 PSI. If I up the PSI on it, it would close faster too. Really no need to. It opens and locks, so that is what counts. 1/4" line will just eliminate the guess work.

I am not sure what I did to fix the issue with the drills.
I went on to tool number 3, which is also a drill. Set it up the same way and got no error message. Then switched back to tool 2 and input the same numbers and it worked.
Oh well. The solution apparently was to keep screwing with it until it works.

[LeeWay]

Turned my first full part, But............The conversational uses the right side of the parting tool for both grooving and parting. You have to add the width of the insert when you set that tool up for Z. I did it that way a few days ago. Forgot to do it today. So first part was short by .118". That I know how to fix.
Chip chute is working great too. Tomorrow I will get some good conversational code and then add the bar puller routine. When I get that sorted out, I'll shoot another video or two.

[LeeWay]

Thought you guys might like to see what the Tormach is replacing. It may not look like much, but it is a work horse.

[LeeWay]

I just realized that I do not need to carry both drill bits on board at the same time. I rarely have to use the little one. I set both of these for length using my digital height gauge on my granite block like I do for my mill tools. ER tools do not tighten up precisely, but these two are within about .001" of each other. For a drill, that is close enough. These two drills will then use the same tool number and offset and become hot swap able. That would be the same for any drill size that is this length. That frees up a tool position. I will use its current position for my spot drill. So I guess a lathe is a thinking man's tool. Probably why it feels so new to me.

[mountaindew]

Thought you guys might like to see what the Tormach is replacing. It may not look like much, but it is a work horse.

Looks like your going to improve your accuracy and repeatability a little bit.

[LeeWay]

Maybe a little bit. Maybe a lot.
I think I am having to unlearn a lot of stuff I did with my little lathe to make acceptable parts.
I use double nut rolled ball screws on it, so backlash was not too much of an issue.

When I cut brass though, part stickout was pretty far. Enough to do two parts. With them sticking out so far, the first part was always a little smaller than the second in diameter. I fudged it in CAD so they would come out about the same. That way at least I would get two parts at one time.
The plastic parts are what I use the most of. They are too long to do two parts. It is not as sturdy as brass on a long stickout either.

This new lathe once tweaked will make very precise parts.
I tested the diameter of the test part yesterday and it is within .0005". My tool setting is probably off by that much.

[LeeWay]

I heard back from Tormach on the drill error I was experiencing. Turns out it is a known bug in the latest version and the fix is coming out this week. The work around believe it or not is to switch between the tap and drill screen a few times. That is exactly what I did a few times without realizing it.
They have a bug list on the Tormach site. I read though them and have seen some of them before. Some I haven't noticed. Glad to see they are fixing them quickly.

[tmarks11]

I heard back from Tormach on the drill error I was experiencing.

Tormach customer service is impressive. When I reported what turned out NOT to be a bug I got two emails from two different people at Tormach within a few hours with answers to how to make it work.

[LeeWay]

The two times I have contacted them they had the answers I needed. That is nice to know.

I am going to hold off until the weekend to do much more on the lathe. Maybe by then, the updated version of Path Pilot will be out.
I should have all my tools and air line stuff to upgrade to 1/4" line along with the lubricators for both the puller and closer. Better sooner than later for oil.
I have a bottle of air oil, but I will get a new supply. This is about 10 years old. I hope to be making some real production parts this weekend. Dang production just gets in the way of having fun sometimes.