The TM20VL mill comes with a drawbar that is less than ideal.  As it has an R8 spindle ad I'm already using Tormach's R8 collet, it seemed logical to use their drawbar as well.

This simple project shows how I installed the new drawbar.

 THE image below shows the new and the old drawbar. As can be seen they are basically the same length. What can also be seen is the difference in the two drawbars. The other advantage of using the Tormach drawbar is that they have a really nice spanner with an inbuilt hammer with a  brass mallet head.

The old drawbar also has a square nut on the end but it appears to be hand filed and already rounded on the corners.  The Tormach drawbar is a quality made component that should be much easier to use.

The parts I order from Tormach were;

• 33014 - Drawbar for PCNC 440 
• 32336 - Drawbar Wrench/Hammer
• 35356 - TTS Adapter Collet: R8
• 30560 - Alignment Washer for PCNC 1100 Drawbar

 The image above also shows the old spacer that screws onto the spindle and sits under the drawbar. I needed to make a new one, which is also shown above. The parts used for the project are shown below.

Below are the images of the new spacer. I made it on my CNC lathe use the Mach3 conversational wizards.

I bored out the top of the spacer for the alignment washer. It helps to keep the drawbar centred and in balance. The two o-rings also help to keep the spindle centred and stops it rattling around.

I haven't got around to setting up thread cutting on the cnc lathe so I used a M20x1 tap along with the homemade tap holder. :)

 The last three images show the spacer and drawbar installed on the mill.