On Monday 07 January 2019 05:22:53 andy pugh wrote: > On Mon, 7 Jan 2019 at 05:07, Gregg Eshelman via Emc-users > > <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > I've seen some that have each tool holder coded and read the holders > > in the chain or carousel as it moves. > > In fact the machine in the first post is just such a machine. The tool > holders all have a mechanical bar-code made of a stack of rings of > different diameters on the outside of the tool holder body.
I have spent some time daydreaming about a tool changer that changes the whole ER-11 for use with this gantry mill. Something that changes the nut, collet and tool all in one swell foop. \ Obviously one would have to motorize with enough force to adequately tighten and loosen the nut, but spinning the nut on and off with a short burst of the spindle motor. Where I hit the rude awakening is in positioning the two wrenches independently, in order to exert enough force to get an adequate grip on the tool. I can visualize tickling the motor till the top wrench snaps onto the spindle double d flats but then possibky pushing the top wrench into engagement key/spline. The nut wrench has to be articulated so it snaps into place later. That would be helped if it was a 12 point socket. But then we may need 2 or 4x the torque to loosen it as it took to tighten it. And because the tool may slip in and out of the collet while the nut is loose, some means of driving the tool back into the collet to a fixed projection, then some additional time to measure the stickout sure seems like a good idea. That may yet make me learn a cad program. Fugly thought, that. Cheers, Gene Heskett -- _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
