As an introduction, I'm a custom gunsmith located in a VERY small rural town in South Georgia. Most of my business is internet based and my main focus is in building high end handguns for competition and self defense. Aside from the current mods and machine work I do now, I want to integrate some small production parts into my business, which is somewhat a small niche market. I have a bad habit of buying smaller, lesser expensive machines to start out and then upgrading later. This will most likely be one of those cases. My thoughts are to buy the PCNC 1100, get it making these small runs of parts, and as my business grows we would grow into a larger, more capable machine. The affordability of the Tormach will allow me to bring CNC machining into the shop, not to mention its compact size (which I'm not hurting for room but entry into my building causes some restrictions). This offers me a few things to include faster production times over manual machining and the ability to offer unique parts to my customer base produced in our shop. A lot of the parts will be in 6061 aluminum, but the bulk of my current machining is in 4140 and 4130 heat treated carbon steel (pistol frames and slides).
I'm hoping the decision to pursue the Tormach works out and I don't regret buying it over the Haas mini mill or some of the other machines. With the Tormach, I can get the 4th axis, software, tooling, and everything else I need to start making chips for about the cost of a used Haas. Right now, generating revenue is important and if the Tormach wont do it, a bigger more expensive machine certainly wont, but the Tormach wont put me under trying.
I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you more experienced guys in the future, thus far this forum appears to be a wealth of knowledge. I have no formal CNC training but I plan to hire a consultant to help me get started.
To give you an idea of what I do, here's a link to my website:
Freedom Gunworks
I'm hoping the decision to pursue the Tormach works out and I don't regret buying it over the Haas mini mill or some of the other machines. With the Tormach, I can get the 4th axis, software, tooling, and everything else I need to start making chips for about the cost of a used Haas. Right now, generating revenue is important and if the Tormach wont do it, a bigger more expensive machine certainly wont, but the Tormach wont put me under trying.
I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you more experienced guys in the future, thus far this forum appears to be a wealth of knowledge. I have no formal CNC training but I plan to hire a consultant to help me get started.
To give you an idea of what I do, here's a link to my website:
Freedom Gunworks