Novamill Tooling

Well the quick change uses too much Z up when I use a vice...

So I have changed to using a collet holder - Er16, working well actually, except changing tools is a pig, and none of the tool heights are consistent so has to be reset all the time.

So I figured I should buy a set of iso30 toolholders, and just have them dedicated to certain tools.

Then its just a case of undoing the bolt on top the spindle housing, a light tap and out comes the tool holder, pop another one in...manually it was taking over a minute and getting the c spanner to catch is a pain, so I reached for my trusty impact driver. I can now undo without using the c spanner, so the swap takes about 10 seconds, and the tool height is repeatable, as long as the tool library in denford software is kept up to date and the tools numbered so I don't get confused.

So now the theory worked, t I was trying to find some cheap iso30 tool holders, but all the ones I found to match my collet set and tolling I use were much more expensive. So I am going to try to switch to BT30, which from my reading is the same taper, but without the small turret on the top for the bolt to fasten into. Fingers crossed my bolt is long enough to reach into the bt30 holder, but I should know this weekend. If not I will be on the hunt for a longer bolt I can use with the BT30 holders, and I'll keep the shorter bolt for use with the iso30 tool holders (2 of them) that I have.

I'll keep this thread updated as I go.