Tormach introduced the xsTECH Pro on October 8, 2025, from its home in Madison, Wisconsin. The press release calls it the next generation of the xsTECH platform and prices it from $9,995. It's a desktop CNC router for classrooms, STEM labs, and makerspaces, with a full enclosure and a 4-station automatic tool changer (ATC). An ATC swaps cutters during a program, so nobody has to stop the machine, loosen a collet, and re-zero the tool.
Tormach is a U.S. builder of CNC machines and small industrial robots. The xsTECH line was already its compact router. The Pro version adds the enclosure and the tool changer and aims the whole package at schools that want students to see a real tool change.
TMWB has not tested the xsTECH Pro. What follows comes from Tormach's press release and a same-day company video.
What did Tormach announce?
Andrew Grevstad, the xsTECH Pro product lead, says in the release that school districts "need equipment that is safe, approachable and flexible enough for both introductory and advanced projects." He adds that the machine "was designed from the ground up to prepare students for the future of advanced manufacturing." That's the company's framing. Underneath it, the hardware is still a small router.
The release lists a 4-station ATC, a full safety enclosure to protect users and contain debris, a footprint that fits a 24-inch countertop, and a spindle that runs up to 20,000 rpm (revolutions per minute). Tormach's video from the same day adds that the machine supports probing and a fourth axis, and that basic tool holding, workholding, and a 15-piece carbide tool kit come in the box.
Probing is a touch cycle that finds the edge or top of the work and records that location in the controller. It's how a student sets up a part without scribbling pencil marks. A fourth axis is a rotary attachment that turns the work so you can machine around it. I wouldn't tell a buyer the rotary is included in the $9,995, since the box list beside that claim covers only tool holding, workholding, and the carbide kit.
A reprint two days later, tracking the same announcement, adds that the machine weighs about 150 pounds (a two-person lift), uses linear guides and ball screws, and targets wood, plastics, and aluminum. Aluminum on a 20,000 rpm desktop spindle is a normal claim for this class. It still depends on workholding and tool stick-out, which is how far the cutter hangs out of its holder.
Why does a real tool changer matter?
Without a changer, a second tool means a full stop. The spindle halts, the collet opens, the cutter is swapped, and the controller has to learn the new tool length (how far the bit sticks out). A wrong number sends the bit too deep or leaves it cutting air. In a classroom, that swap is also when hands get closest to a sharp edge.
Four stations hold four cutters and let the program swap them. The 15-piece kit is bigger than the changer, so part of the lesson becomes choosing which cutters to load. The October 8 text doesn't say the machine measures tool length by itself, and it doesn't mention compressed air, which many tool changers need to release a holder. A lab without a compressor should ask before counting on the ATC.
What does the enclosure add?
The enclosure puts a cabinet around the cutter so chips and dust stay off the students. The release calls it a safety enclosure. I won't add a door interlock (a switch that stops the machine when the door opens) that the text never names. Coolant is also unmentioned, so a lab planning wet cutting should ask.
The 24-inch figure describes the countertop footprint outside the machine. It doesn't tell you travel, meaning how far the cutter can move inside, and your fixture has to share that space. Travel isn't in the October 8 text, so nobody can yet say what fits.
What software runs it?
Control is PathPilot, Tormach's own software, the same environment the company uses on its mills. A school that already teaches PathPilot can put a router next to a mill and keep one interface. The company's video describes the ATC as the way to run multi-step jobs without a manual tool change.
How should a lab read the $9,995 price?
At $9,995, the xsTECH Pro isn't a hobby impulse buy, and it isn't a vertical machining center either. That's a floor-standing mill built for heavier cuts in metal, with jobs like rigid tapping (cutting threads with the spindle locked in step with the feed). The Pro announcement doesn't claim either.
In October 2025, a school shopping under about $15,000 had a few options. On the low side were enclosed desktop machines such as the Makera Carvera. Carbide 3D's HDM suits a lab wanting a heavier router that can accept a pallet delivery. Tormach's own larger mills fit a curriculum that's really about steel. The xsTECH Pro sits in the middle: small enough for a counter, enclosed, with a tool changer, and tied to PathPilot so the lab isn't inventing its own software stack.
What's still unknown?
The release says the machine will be on display at the Association for Career and Technical Education CareerTech Vision conference, December 9 to 12, 2025, at Tormach booth 1022. "Introduces" and "will be on display" aren't the same as "ships tomorrow," so I wouldn't tell a lab manager the machine is in the building on October 8.
Travel, spindle wattage, air requirements, shipping, lead time, and whether a 120 V classroom circuit is enough are all questions for Tormach's education team. The solid number is the price: $9,995 to start.
If you run a makerspace or a career and technical education lab and you want students to practice a tool change on something that fits through a doorway, this is the Tormach to price. If you need to hog out steel fixtures, you're still looking at a mill.
Sources and image credits
- xsTECH Pro product page
- Tormach announcement, Today's Machining World
- Tormach introduction video
- Product images: Tormach xsTECH Pro product page
