I am currently installing a PCNC 1100 mill which seems to be taking me forever, mainly because I have so little time of late to devote to getting it fully set up.

Building it up after delivery was fairly straight forward despite a severe lack of space to move it around and the initial set up was ok. Last time I was home I ran the demo programme and all went well.

I decided to order the ATC shortly after I ordered the mill and this arrived in time for me to. Getting the ATC fitted without anybody to help me was not too bad a task, however the set up and the installation of the software was fraught with problems which resulted in me having eventually to re-install the restore disc and re-load the software again which proved difficult and took quite a few attempts before I got it installed.

With this done I started the set up process again, during which I noticed that the spindle nose with the Z axis zeroed was about 1/16" below the top of the tool holder in the tool tray. In order to give the desired clearance I adjusted the stop point of the limit switch on the Z axis. Further into the set up process I went to set the spindle height at which it point the auto Draw bar clamps the tool holder shank. It is here that I get the message "Cannot set position Insufficient distance from Z"

I think that I might have to run the restore disc again then install the software for the mill with ATC but am reluctant to do so as it is not easy to do, given that the controller runs at 110 volts and it is switched via the 240 volt supply from the mill and I do not have a suitable plug to go directly from the computer to my 110 volt transformer.

I have been in touch with Tormach but of course it is a weekend and nobody is at home and would like to press on and get this sorted as I still have the fourth axis to instal.

Am I on the right track, is it worth trying to re instal again?

I managed to get a decent cable so that I could load up restore disc. independently from the 250/110v supply via the machine.I did this and then ran the set up disc for a new machine with ATC (which Mine is). Once loaded with the New machine with ATC software I started the set up process again and got one step further. While trying to set the point at which the spindle stops when picking up a new tool from the tray. This time it actually worked but didn't stop in the right place, breaking a nylon bolt that is used to hold the tool trays in position (Obviously designed to do just that in a collision). After recovering from that shock I thought I would have to try again but on trying a second time I get the same old error message about distance from Z being insufficient.

I know one thing, I,m certainly loosing a few Zeds at night thinking a bout this one.

Everything else is working, the draw bar works as it should and the ATC tray moves from slot to slot perfectly. It's all very frustrating this, I guess I shall have to wait until the USA opens for business tomorrow so that I get some answers to questions.

I got a response from Tormach this afternoon with some tips as to what could be the problem. There were four suggestions, 2 were suggesting that the whole ATC was mounted too high on the column but I was fairly sure this was in fact not so, similarly that the ATC was tilted so that the ATC was higher at the spindle side than at the back. Again I new this wasn't the case because I had checked the alignment using a level and it was OK.

The fourth suggestion was that the Draw bar wasn't adjusted to proper preload, I did suspect this to be true so I re-adjusted the draw bar and tried again and still got the same message about it being insufficient distance from Z.

The fourth suggestion was that the limit switch trip dog on the Z axis was set too high on the column. I had previously tried altering the position of this to give more clearance above the tools in the tool tray but this didn't work, however this time I set it as low as I could on the column and Hey Presto ! eureka? Yippee! it works. I immediately was given a distance to the reference point of tool pick up on the display screen.

Next job is to sort out the A axis, followed by the scanner and the Tool setup stuff.

Hi Niloch,

it is indeed a personal import and as yet Tormach do not have a dealer in the UK. I found the whole process of importing very straight forward. I arranged shipping through a company called ACC Shipping who looked after all of the form filling in and payment of import duties and VAT for me, they even held on to it until I was ready to receive it into the workshop at no extra charge.

I am a firm believer in buying the biggest and best that you can afford, I did just that in this case going for the full works including auto tool changer, fourth axis, Tormach tooling system,scanner etc.

I have had a few problems setting it up but the Tormach people in their support centre are very helpful and so far have got me over any problems without too much pain. Time is my biggest problem these days, there just isn't enough of it.

The Tormach is relatively expensive but buying from the USA is probably as good as it can get right now given the strength of the Pound more so for me because I can claim the VAT back as it is being bought for my company and it will be put to work as soon as possible.

It is physically a big machine and it is built like the proverbial brick netty. I am really looking forward to exploring it's possibilities.

If you are anywhere near Manchester and want to see one in the flesh drop me a reply.