Quote Originally Posted by Davek0974 View Post
Just a quick question - Why so much mass in this design? Looking at the likes of production mills like Tormach etc, there is nowhere near as much mass in them and they are proven designs.

I like the ideas but over designing is surely as bad as under designing something ??
The idea is to allow for absorption of vibration etc. The hollows in the base structures improve strength and keep the weight bit more palatable. I need to check what the final weight estimate will be, I have had some issues with the files in Fusion, so redrawing some of the machine.

The idea here too is that this machine could be running a lot quicker (velocity and acceleration) than a Tormach. Considering the cost of a Tormach (ignore shipment / import duties, just the raw buy price), Thor should be a better machine.

The Tormach 1100 specs are below:-

Feed Rate: 110 IPM (X,Y)
90 IPM (Z)
110 IPM is 2800 mm/min. I am aiming for upwards of 10 000mm/min at least. The rails, ballscrews and motors that I am using cost more than the entire Tormach machine if I paid full new price (which I did not). This is before adding the controller, electronics, structure costs, spindle etc.