Hey folks, @Kenneth and I are going to attempt some maintenance on the Tormach at the Metal Shop Volunteer Workday on Saturday, January 24. We’d love some help! At the last work day, @Julie and I took off the fixture plate and cleaned it and the castings under it.
This time we’re hoping to re-level the machine, do a bunch of cleaning, and see if it needs re-alignment and tramming.
Both experienced folks (Tormach, CNC Mills, or any machining) and newcomers are welcome. (I’m closer to the latter category myself).
Some other options include sealant maintenance on the enclosure and checking the fixture plate flatness. Depending on how it’s bowed (and it is) we could shim it close to flat then fly cutter the fixture plate if needed. I believe it was donated by @jimbojsb so I figure we should check with him before subtracting metal. The ways are likely worn more in the middle, so that might limit how flat we can get it easily. I only sort of know what I’m doing as well, so all levels of experience are welcome to come help and learn.
I would strongly recommend you not attempt to fly cut that fixture plate, you will make it worse unless you are very very sure that the mill has no head nod. Also you’d need to pull every filler plug and put them back which is absolute hell. If it is bowed then the table is probably also not flat anymore, so shimming would be the best option. Unfortunately flipping it over is not an option either.
Last workday we took the fixture plate off and did a very basic check. It seemed like the casting under the plate was significantly flatter than the plate itself. @Julie did the Herculean task of pulling all the plugs and cleaning the plate, without cheating and diverting two rivers to do it. But yeah, I’m not sold on trying to fly cut it, partly because it is significantly larger than the spindle can travel (plus the radius of the superfly, though I suppose we could use a longer fly cutter). While flattening the part that the spindle can reach might be beneficial for many operations, it’s useful to be able to use the outskirts of the plate to hold material that’s larger than the travel.
The shim plan sounds good to me, if we get that far.
I’m also interested in setting up a few cheap aluminum focused tools in TTS holders as shop use tools with a publicly available Fusion template. 1/4” 3 flute DLC roughing bit, flat end mill, and ball seem like good options plus a chamfer tool, but it would be great to hear what others are using too.
I indicated the fixture plate a bit today and it seemed reasonably flat relative to the spindle, within about 0.002” across the travels.
The machined faces on the fixed mod vice indicate worse across a much shorter distance when on the plate, even after wiping surfaces clean. It looks like we might have some embedded material in the commonly used clamping areas of the plate, and the vices should get some attention too. I think we’ve got some jaw inserts of a different type in the drawer if the current ones are causing issues.
I’ll get a pack of shims, I think we should be able to do better than .002.
Good point about the vices. I’ve also wondered if someone had machined them already in the past, since their height is supposed to be 1” from the fixture plate, but instead ours are ~.98”.