A little less than one year ago, we announced the 8L Lathe would be joining the Tormach family of machines. Now a little less than 12 months later, we are starting to see what the 8L is capable of out in the wild.
When development of the 8L was first finished, there was excitement buzzing around the Tormach office. This little lathe was going to change the barrier to entry for turning, both because of the unit’s capabilities (150 IPM, 8 in. swing, and max workpiece length of 10 in.) within such a small package and because of it’s affordable price point (the premium package starts at less than $11k).
The response to the 8L lathe was overwhelmingly positive at launch. So much so, that we sold out almost immediately! Due to challenges with the pandemic and supply chain disruptions, the demand for the 8L kept our logistics manager extremely busy. But now that a number of machines are in the hands of several interesting customers, we are starting to see what the 8L is really capable of creating.
NYC CNC did an introductory video on the 8L where they cut a bolt with a higbee thread to see what the machine could handle. They cut everything from aluminum to 4140 steel to titanium, and without much dialing-in, managed to hold 0.001” tolerance. Now they are going to start focusing on the tolerances, to see what they can squeeze out of this little machine.
A Tormach operator that goes by the Instagram handle @kd4mxa even started cutting pins entirely with conversational.
And Instagrammer @roguetoolpath is testing out all sorts of details with his new 8L.
He’s also been talking about using his 8L lathe on CNC Zone, where he said:
“I enjoy my 8L Lathe. The PathPilot common interface makes mill, router and lathe straightforward to use. After using this machine for a few weeks it’s not hard to see one part of the lathe market this machine fits into well! Precision threading collet lathes.”
And there are a number of other 8L owners making chips and showing off what their machines can do on the internet.
There are a lot of different ways to utilize the small footprint and budget-friendly 8L lathe, and we’re only starting to see what folks are creating. If you’re making chips with your 8L lathe, be sure to use the hashtag #tormach8L. And if you’re making chips on any piece of Tormach equipment, we want to see it, so be sure to use #madewithtormach.