1370D Vertical Machining Center: 750 mm of Z Travel, the Deepest Column in the BONANZA VMC Range

Buyers compare VMCs on table size and X travel. Z travel gets one glance and a nod. That is fine until a job arrives that is tall rather than long: a gearbox housing standing on end, a fixture stack that puts the part 300 mm above the table, a boring bar that has to reach down inside a weldment. On those jobs the Z number decides whether the machine can take the work at all.

The 1370D is where BONANZA puts the most Z travel in its vertical range. 750 mm, on a 1,400 × 700 mm table, in a machine that stands 2,620 mm tall and weighs 9,000 kg.

What 750 mm of Z changes in practice

Spindle nose to table is the number that gets eaten first. Vises, rotary tables, tombstones and angle plates all sit between the table and the part, and every one of them costs Z before a cutter touches metal. A 200 mm vise plus a 150 mm chunk of fixture already removes 350 mm from the stroke. On a machine with 550 mm of Z, that leaves 200 mm of real cutting room. On the 1370D it leaves 400 mm.

That margin is what lets you run a tall part without pulling the vise off and clamping to the table, and what lets a long-reach boring bar work without the head running out of travel at the bottom of the bore. The 1370D also carries 700 mm of Y travel on a 700 mm table, so the stroke covers the full table width with no dead zone at the edges.

One consequence to plan for: Z rapid is 18 m/min while X and Y run at 24 m/min. On deep pockets that shows up as a slightly slower approach, worth budgeting for if your cycle is dominated by long Z moves.

1370D published specification

The T-slot layout is worth a second look. Five slots at 130 mm pitch span 520 mm across the 700 mm table width, leaving roughly 90 mm at each edge. That suits M16 clamps and 18 mm slot tooling, and gives you four usable clamping lanes rather than three.

Where the Z travel sits across the range

Put the whole vertical range side by side and the 1370D is not a small step up. It is the top of the Z column.

Two of those rows are worth arguing with. The 1890 is much the bigger machine, 14,000 kg with a BT50-190 spindle, yet it publishes 600 mm of Z, less than the 1370D. The 1690, at 12,000 kg, publishes 700 mm. The heavy BT50 frames are built for mass removal on wide, flat parts, not for height. If your work is tall and narrow, the 1370D’s Z travel is the reason to pick it over a heavier machine.

Table coverage: 1,300 mm of X on a 1,400 mm table

Divide X travel by table length and you get a rough idea of how much of the table the spindle can reach without re-clamping. The 1370D comes out at 93 percent: 1,300 mm of travel on a 1,400 mm table, so only 50 mm at each end sits beyond the tool. Mount a vise at one end and a second at the other and both are reachable in one setup. The 1560 comes out at 68 percent, pairing 1,500 mm of travel with a 2,200 mm table, and the 650 at 65 percent. The long-table models are for long parts you index along the table. The 1370D is for a compact footprint used edge to edge.

The footprint and the 2,620 mm height

The 1370D measures 3,550 mm long, 2,730 mm wide and 2,620 mm tall. That height is worth flagging early, because it is lower than the 1265D at 3,360 mm despite the bigger table and the extra 2,200 kg of mass. Lower headroom means easier rigging under a standard shop crane, and fewer problems if the machine has to pass through a doorway or sit under an existing gantry.

Foundation is the other item people leave to the last week. Nine tonnes on a 3,550 × 2,730 mm base is roughly 0.93 kg per square centimetre at the pad, which is modest, but the machine still wants a level, isolated pad if you are holding tenths on tall work with the head fully extended.

What the product page does not publish

The 1370D page lists the envelope, the taper, the speed and the weight. It does not list spindle motor power, ATC tool count and tool-change time, positioning and repeat accuracy, rail type, or ballscrew class. Those are the numbers that decide throughput, and they are not on the website, so do not accept an assumed value from anyone, including this article.

Ask for them in writing with the quote: motor kW and torque curve, magazine capacity, tool-to-tool time, and accuracy under ISO 230-2.

1370D against the 1370

Both pages publish the same table: same 1,400 × 700 mm table, 800 kg load, 1,300 / 700 / 750 mm travels, 24 / 24 / 18 rapids, BT40-150 taper at 8,000 rpm, 3,550 × 2,730 × 2,620 mm frame and 9,000 kg. Nothing in the published envelope separates them.

So the difference sits in configuration, not geometry: control package, guideway and screw specification, coolant arrangement, chip management, or factory-bundled options. That is a conversation for the sales engineer. If you are comparing quotes on the two names, put the option list side by side first, or you are comparing a base machine to a loaded one.

Where the 1370D fits

Tall, dense parts that fit inside 1,400 × 700 mm and 800 kg. Pump and valve bodies standing on end, gearbox and reducer housings, hydraulic manifolds with deep cross-drilled bores, mould inserts with deep pockets, brackets with vertical flanges. Also shops running two fixtures side by side, where the table coverage and 24 m/min XY rapids keep non-cutting time down.

It is not the machine for 2 m long weldments, where the extra table length of the 1560 earns its footprint, and not the machine for 50 taper heavy roughing, where the 1690 and 1890 carry the mass. Its case is height plus reach on a BT40 platform.

Related models and next step

Full details and the spec table are on the 1370D vertical machining center page. If your parts are shorter, the 1265D saves 2,200 kg and about 250 mm of height and length. If you need both height and 50 taper torque, look at the L1690, which runs 700 mm of Z on a BT50-190 spindle. The whole lineup is on the vertical machining centers series page, and the 1370 page covers the sister model.

Send drawings with the tallest feature and the heaviest part marked, plus fixture height, and you will get a Z-stack check against 750 mm rather than a generic quote. Contact BONANZA CNC for the option list and accuracy figures.