Last weekend, Tormach showed off a PCNC 440 just down the road at the Madison Maker Faire. With local maker celebrities, like Ben Heck and ArcAttack (Tesla Coil Music), as well as our two local makerspaces (Sector67 and The Bodgery), the event brought in over 4,000 eager makers.
Daniel Hienzsch is the resident engineer at Supplyframe’s design lab in Pasadena, CA, where they use their PCNC 1100 for a broad array of engineering endeavors.
You read that headline correctly, power drawbars for the PCNC 440 are now available! Many find themselves purchasing machines on a budget, and therefore tend to skip some of the flashier accessories, or buyers don’t see a need to make tool changes quickly if they are only machining for hobby, prototyping, or some other non-production purpose. But, the power drawbar is an accessory that most users place in the “need” column, instead of the “want” column.
Razor USA, the company best known for introducing the world to the Razor Scooter back in 2000, uses a Tormach PCNC 1100 for prototyping and product development. Billy Griggs, a retired BMX racer and product developer at Razor, says “Since [the success of the scooters], it’s been a long journey into electrics, electric ride-ons, and fantasy-type toys. We’ve really grown as a company well beyond the scooters.”
The term Comic-Con has become a household staple over the last decade or so, as various conventions celebrating comics, movies, and science fiction. As these events have grown and spread over the years – growing from a small affair in San Diego in the 70’s to a phenomenon of multiple events in multiple countries – the concept of cosplay has grown as well.
Letting students take control of the CNC machine for the first time each semester can be terrifying enough if they were paying attention to your wise words of caution, but we all know some of them weren’t taking studious notes. An easy way to save your machine and nerves is to give your students forgiving workpieces, like machinist wax, wood, or plastic, but that’s not always the best solution.
