What do you do when you already make a compact, capable, and easy-to-use lathe? You make it faster, more powerful, and more refined of course!
Today, Tormach employee-owners like myself, are proud to introduce our newest CNC lathe, the 15LX. Designed for machinists who want more performance without giving up the flexibility of a compact footprint, the 15LX doubles spindle power, increases rapid speeds, and enhances motion control for smoother, faster machining.
Key Features of the 15LX:
Designed and manufactured by employee-owners in the USA and Mexico.
EtherCAT-based control system with integrated spindle motor encoder.
6 HP continuous spindle power, up to 10 HP peak for heavy cuts.
Rapid speeds up to 360 IPM on X and Z axes.
Includes 21.5-inch operator console with built-in WiFi.
Includes air-gun and washdown kits.
Choose from gang tool or turret-based models.
Every axis, including the turret, features absolute encoder servos for better accuracy and improved reliability.
The changes to the 15LX include but are not limited to a completely new electrical cabinet (the contents of which would not fit in the 15L electrical cabinet), new mounts for the axis servos, a complete new mounting bracket for the spindle motor, new pulleys for all, there are no provisions for the spindle door and enclosure door interlocks, and ignoring the electrical cabinet size issue the cables would need several holes drilled into the cabinet to pass through. The mounts for the brackets would require holes drilled into the base casting which requires complete disassembly of the enclosure.
While we always are looking towards supporting our existing machines there’s a point where the juice isn’t worth the squeeze and an upgrade kit far exceeds that by any reasonable measure.
At the risk of being another “yeah but what else are you doing for me” type of customer, what about a tailstock? Not yet being a lathe owner myself, I’ve seen quite a lot of people looking for on for the 15L and, at least for the moment, I don’t see one available for the LX either. I know it was a thing at one point but seems to have faded away over time. Any idea if that is being brought back?
No, there isn’t a tailstock accessory for the 15LX. That being said, it’s definitely something we have ranked very high on the list for future machines. To that end - would you give me some examples of how you might want to use it? What I’m looking for is sizes you might want to cut, types of parts, etc… things that could ultimately be used in product requirements and specification in the future.
Honestly, I can’t say what I would specifically use it for. Since I don’t have a lathe yet, I tend to avoid turning work whenever possible.
That said, some basic capabilities would be positioning to within at least a couple inches off the face of the chuck for small diameter parts with a high length to diameter ratio (pins, screws, etc). Minimal overall length to allow as much overall material length as possible, OR has a quick detach method would be great so users don’t have to choose between end support and maximum work volume. And it should have some amount of adjustment in X as the ability to shim vertically so it can be dialed in to a particular machine after purchase. Standard morse taper would be fine and I don’t really see a need for more than 1-2” of total travel, though more is always better so it can be used for manual drilling if needed.
I think some form of bar feeding would be nice if a shop is going to try to do production even small run production could get tedious if you have to babysit short lengths of material. At a minimum some way to support longer material for a bar puller would be necessary as even a 36" piece of stock is too long to go unsupported in that set up. Is the spindle bore going to be any larger? I assume you can get a piece of 1.5" stock thru the bore of the 15LX?
Hi Ed - Thanks! As to the 5C sizing, I personally try to keep it at 1 inch or smaller when using long material since there is variation on the collet threads based on different manufacturers.
Doing anything over 1” with 5c can work but it’s usually not just plug and play. Some collets only have a step for the larger diameter rather than being through, I’ve had issues with the internal threads of collets even at 1” so you might need to search for collets without them.