Bypassing a broken ignition and engine cooling fan in my Taurus with switches.
Buying a flash drive to transfer documents to my laptop.
Replacing resistors in an elevator control board.
Have a story to tell us?
Come visit and tell us! You just might find your story listed here!
3D Printing Coming Soon! Pre-order Yours Today!
Velleman, Inc. is on the cusp of releasing their K8200 PLA/ABS 3D Printer Kit. You can put it together yourself or have our staff do it for you! Expected arrival in the store is early August, so give us a call, or come on down and pre-order yours now! Be sure to check out the promo video!
We're very pleased to announce that Santa Cruz Electronics is now a stocking dealer for Tormach CNC machine tools. Tormach is the finest machine tool builder in this great new field of Desktop Fab, and we're proud to provide a place for you to see and demo these spectacular CNC machines.
We'll be stocking Tormach TTS tooling, mill upgrades and accessories, cutting tools, materials and supplies for CNC fabrication to help you get going on your Fab projects. We'll have our first demo PCNC1100 set up and operating at SCE by the end of this month, with a PCNC770 to follow quickly. We're bringing in tooling and accessories now, and will continue adding to our stock as you tell us more about what you'd like us to have on hand for your projects. So, speak up, and we'll try to stock it if you want it!
Please contact us to schedule a personal demo, and to discuss how a Tormach CNC mill can improve your fabrication process for prototyping, light production, or just to trick out your garage for fun!
Sometime a larger tool is needed than can be held by ER20 or ER16 collet holders. If the shank happens to conveniently be 3/4in, then no problem, a Tormach TTS adaptor will convert it to TTS easily. If not, what to do?
An ER32 collet holder with a Tormach ATC adaptor is the solution. None were available on the market, so we adapted our own. We imported some good quality ER32 3/4in shank collet holders, added Tormach's TTS-ATC adaptor ring, and shortened and profiled the upper shank to work with the Tormach TTS system and the ATC.
One of the biggest hurdles to the Desktop Fab new user is the complexity and difficulty of CAM software used to create your G-Code. If you're like me, you've cursed and struggled to make sense of the very optuse software that passes for 'user-friendly' in the CAD/CAM world. 'User-surly' is more like it...Those of us coming to this from the computer world can only shake our heads in wonder at the poor UI and lack of logical program flow, and absurdly expensive to boot...
I'd say it's time for something different..
Take a look at CamBam as an alternative. It is actually a snap to use, and has great features and functionality, and can be customized easily for your particular machining needs. I was able to import a DXF, assign MOPs, generate workable code for my Tormach without cracking a manual, and do it quickly enough to make a Christmas gift for my wife..all on Christmas Eve (yes, I was late!).
I'm no machining wizard, just a user like you, but I was impressed with this package.
Oh, by the way, we now carry this software at SCE. And if you are machining on a Tormach mill, we wrote a Tormach-ATC specific post just for you. Just ask for it with your order, it's free.
As a labor of love, I play classical guitar and enjoy building guitar parts on my Tormach for my luthier friends Kenny Hill and Matt Mustapick as a side business under the 'Santa Cruz Originals' name brand. The good folks at Tormach were kind enough to feature a 'Success Story' regarding this on their website. Thanks to Andy and Julie at Tormach.
You can hear Hill Guitars in our Santa Cruz Guitar Orchestra concerts that I play in. Several of our members play Hill Guitars, myself included. They are very, very fine instruments, and I'm proud of the small contributions I can make to Kenny's art. If you are interested, here's a link to SCGO website. In the photos I'm the Old Pharte with the beard.
