ATC Options?

[lucan07]

OR for those that can justify £1500 for automation because it will pay for itself! Few on Aliexpress starting around $2000

[Davek0974]

Bum, would have gone £5-600 just for the luxury but that's just too much ;)

[lucan07]

Haven't seen any cheap DIY worth looking into I think this is about closest but not for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHofj3efzfo

[m_c]

The spindle is the hard part.
Quite a few people use the Tormach system (TTS), which I think is essentially a modified R8 spindle/collet setup.
You could go for a conventional ISO/BT spindle with a drawbar, and attach an airgun for loosening/tightening the drawbar.

Best option is some form of ISO/BT gripper spindle, but they are expensive. I'm sure I've seen ISO30 ATC spindles for around £800, however you need to add a motor to that.
I still have a DaleCNC ISO15 spindle cartridge sat in the workshop doing nothing if you're interested. It cost me about $1200, but I'm open to sensible offers as I've currently got no plans to use it on anything.

[Davek0974]

its not too bad at the low speed end but my spindle is a 24,000rpm water cooled job, my machine was built for aluminium really so it needs the speed. Looking at £1600-£2300 on Aliexpress :(

[routercnc]

I saw this skyfire cnc cartridge a while back. I don't know if it was ever launched - there was quite a thread on cnczone but it wasn't clear if they ever shipped anything. Pretty cheap, although needs a motor and an air cylinder on the drawbar, and is 6000rpm max.

http://www.skyfirecnc.com/picshow.asp?id=24

[Davek0974]

Yep, plenty similar on Aliexpress, BT30, ISO25 sockets but all are low rpm so not really what i was after :)

[John S]

its not too bad at the low speed end but my spindle is a 24,000rpm water cooled job, my machine was built for aluminium really so it needs the speed. Looking at £1600-£2300 on Aliexpress :(

Then you are going to struggle as once you go bigger on diameter to take a QC taper the bearings needed won't hold up to 24K

If you can get away with just two tools, roughing and finishing then think about another 24K spindle mounted on another set of rails on the Z axis that can pneumatically push the second cutter down lower than the roughing cutter. Software then calls up the respective offsets and runs the second spindle.

You can get a completer second spindle and inverter for as low at £175 on Ebay.

[Davek0974]

Thanks John, thats a neat idea but my mill is very compact and not really enough space to mount two spindles.

I will consign the ATC idea to the bin - it was just a luxury really, very impressive but a luxury still, oh well...