Tormach 1100m or Acctek 6060C

Hey guys, I'm a Cad designer for water sports and I wanna get into CNCing.

I've been looking at the Tormach 1100m and Acctek 6060C my knowledge of these machines are abysmal would anyone be willing to give the two a look and give me there opinion?

The tormach is about double the price at around 20k for a good setup ( or so I've read). Id rather spend 20k on something I've very happy with than 10k on the Acctek and have something disappointing...

What do you guys recommend between the two or another machine?

Thanks!

Something used might give you a lot more bang for your buck.

Having recently gone through this decision process myself, do the research and go with a used machine. A Tormach could be fine if you could find a used one cheap and it meets your requirements, but for $20k you can find a nice used VMC that will be much more capable and hold its value.

A good percentage of CNC grief comes from no product support. As the Tormach is by far the largest Prosumer CNC mill and I have never even heard of the other company I would probably lean towards them.

And yes if you want to roll the dice with your $20k you can buy a nice used machine...or a total piece of junk that will never run because you aren't a used machinery inspector and repairman. Remember that hobby and prosumer machines will show up used because the wife got pissed, they lost interest or they overestimated their budget. They can be and usually are lightly used by professional standards.

Shops don't sell good machines that are making money. They sell machines that don't cut it anymore. If like most of the people on this board you know what is and isn't important you can get a killer machine for that $20k. If you don't you will be screwed and spending months of time and thousands of dollars on a greasy lump that will have many thousands of hours of hard use on it.

For some this is half the fun, for others it's a nightmare. Just be sure you know where you fall when you make your decision. You can pay a local CNC place to inspect the machine for you. It will cost a few hundred bucks but well worth it for the piece of mind. Some will even give you a checklist and test results.

As a professional website you will not get any positive feedback on hobby/prosumer machines. Even if a bunch of people here started on them. When it's time to move up to a industrial machine there isn't any comparison and that tends to rightly color their opinions of 'starter' machines.

I use manual machines at work but have Tormach at home. I was well aware of it's limitations when I bought it. Right choice for home. But I only have about 10k in it. At 20K+ not so easy a choice.
The new ones are better though, 11"vs 9" y axis, servo vs stepper.
If you are planning production, not the machine, prototypes fine. Do you really need a toolchanger? Maybe a used Prototrack or similar would be a better choice. Used Prototrack trm seem to go for about 12K.
As far a resale, there are not a lot of used Tormachs for sale out there.
Dave

You're in Vietnam! Haas has the best service in SE Asia, not to mention standard 20-25% off. You can snatch up a new base TM-1 for around $22,000 and not have the stress of knowing where to find a tech when something goes wrong.

In your location you would probably get a better deal on a Taiwanese machine, wouldn't you?

In your location you would probably get a better deal on a Taiwanese machine, wouldn't you?

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Haas has a massive presence in Asia and they want control of that market something fierce. The discounts they give are unheard of anywhere else. When I contracted in to China I was given one direct task, Build a factory that did not outsource anything. The first thing I did was drove to the Haas import warehouse in Shenzhen to see the available stock. (4) VF2-SS, (2) ST-20Y's, (1) VF5-50, (2) DT-1's. great, head back to the factory to see what would start filling the void. I get a call from Barry Rodgers "Haas VP of global sales" asking me what machines I wanted, quite simply I said "all of them". All I heard was give me a minute and I'll call you back.

A few minutes later he's on the phone letting me know not only are they gonna cut me 30% on the whole lot they are going to throw in an HRT-210 and probing 50% off for each mill. Great, did a wire transfer, the next morning machines were showing up. A bit later Barry rings me up to see how its going, I tell him it would be a lot better if I had four more VF2's and a handful of ST-20Y's, cough couch, uh, we have em in Shanghai but I can get them to you in a week, great, get em coming just send the contract and my secretary will send the money.

Now the discounts are getting bigger and the freebie list is piling up. Simple stuff, HSM, expanded memory, things that didn't cost Haas but made it nice on us. 35% on machines, 50+ on accessories. It's hard to beat a loaded out VF2-SS for around $55K with an HRT-210.

Haas's focus on the Asian market is amazing to say the least. The customer support is the best I've seen anywhere in the world. The video on my youtube channel where the chinese delivery driver crushes the front of my new VF2-SS including the controler is an interesting event...And even then they had a new machine to replace it that afternoon.

During the Trump admin im sure there has been some choice words from Gene. Killing a sale of 1000 DT-1's to Foxconn over 25%+ regular VAT! I'd say this next year will be a booming time to buy Haas in Asia and Australia.

Thanks for the info guys, I'm gonna see what kind of deal I can get from Haas!

r00tdown said:

my knowledge of these machines are abysmal

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Those machines are abysmal too.

I bought a Tormach to put in my garage at one point. I was thinking they might be to today what ProtoTRAK Bridgeports were in the 90's. HUGE mistake. That thing is such a POS I cant stand it. I can't help but wonder if all the youtube machinists who make videos with them are paid by Tormach to do so.

In my real shop, I currently run Fadals. They are o.k. but not great. 10x more machine then a tormach in any case.

In the future I want to switch over to Fanuc Robodrills (probably keeping 1 Fadal for a roughing machine). They are fast, parts are cheap and fairly easy to replace yourself (no box ways, cartridge spindles, etc), and they are accurate, probably more accurate than any other machine in the same price range. Rigidity is not spectacular, but I think the small foot print (more spindles per sq ft), fast tool changes, and high feedrates will more than make up for it. They will also fit nicely in a garage.