CNC Workshop 2010 Recap and the Return of the ATC

Well, the blog has been unin­ten­tion­ally silent for a few weeks as we had been quite busy get­ting ready for Dig­i­tal Machinist’s CNC Work­shop in Ann Arbor, MI. This was a great event for the hobby/DIY CNC crowd with lots of really inter­est­ing sem­i­nars and demos from a really knowl­edgable group of enthu­si­asts. I’m defi­nately look­ing for­ward to next year, and hats off to George and Gretchen at Dig­i­tal Machin­ist for reviv­ing the Work­shop after a year hia­tus. Here’s a few pics from the week, includ­ing the 1st ever PCNC Owner’s Meet­ing on Thurs­day night.

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And a short clip of the DIY Lost Foam cast­ing demon­stra­tion at the work­shop, just because hot metal is fun to watch.

And finally, here’s some­thing excit­ing from our booth…

This is a new pro­to­type of an ATC for Tor­mach PCNC 1100 that we unveiled at the show. It’s a col­lab­o­ra­tion between us and another mecha­tron­ics firm. This one has 10 slot inter­change­able tool trays with air­blast. We’ve been pretty quiet on this project and have gone through a num­ber of dif­fer­ent con­cepts to get to this one. Lots more to come about this in the upcom­ing months, so stay tuned. We’ll plan to do a more detailed design tour later on this summer.

PS, The June Show­case win­ner will be pushed back to the first week in July. Stop back next week to see who wins…

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Comments (5)

5 Responses to “CNC Workshop 2010 Recap and the Return of the ATC”

1. Rory DesJardin says:

   July 1, 2010 at 8:09 am

   This is going to be a great add-on, I’m patiently wait­ing. Thanks to Tor­mach for stay­ing up on what the cus­tomer needs. The power draw bar is worth every penny and the ATC I’m sure will be too.
2. james herauf says:

   July 5, 2010 at 10:23 am

   Look­ing good guys. I think a 10 tool changer is great !
   Just a note of visual appear­ance on move­ment.
   Looks like the ATC is bolted to the side of the machine
   tool head. Based on the stag­gered move­ment of ATC mov­ing
   back and forth in a none smooth motion please review that
   this does not cause the head to move out of align­ment.
   2nd please review that if some­one has a 4-axis 8′ rotary table installed on the left side that it does not interfere.
3. Mike Barber says:

   July 5, 2010 at 6:04 pm

   This looks great. I’d like to buy a CNC mill some­day for R&D, and the lack of a toolchanger is the biggest dis­qual­i­fier for the Tor­mach. I’ll be watch­ing to see this excit­ing development.
4. John says:

   July 6, 2010 at 5:15 pm

   Nice job, guys! Look­ing for­ward to see­ing details, time­frame and pricing.
5. matt says:

   July 11, 2010 at 11:21 am

   This has got to be one of the best micro mills on the mar­ket today. You guys are never sat­is­fied and are always think­ing of new ideas to make your prod­uct bet­ter. I can’t wait till I can save enough money for my own.