Kickstarter

For those who don't know what this is, this kit allows your tools to be changed without human interaction, just like the big-boys do, this is not a cartridge like the avenger, this kit modifies the sherline mill head or build your own head so you can use ISO15 tool holders and obtain real ATC capabilities.

My main goal is to enhance the hobby-machinist environment by providing high quality products at a reasonable price and what I found when searching for an auto toolchange spindle made it difficult for all but the extremely rich enthusiast or the product has such poor quality that buying it meant nothing more than an exercise in wasting money, A2Z and IMSsas are just a couple of example of highly overpriced products.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against turning a profit but overinflated pricing prevents the hobby from being enjoyed by thoser on limited budgets and settling for a poor solution like the QuickChange becuase it is the only option close to being affordable doesn't help promote the hobby so my main goal in this hobby industry is to make quality products available at an extremely affordable price.

When completed, the technical drawings will be available and typical machine shop cost to produce the shaft will run around $350.00 (including hardening) and an EDM shop to produce the clamp around $500.00 (including hardening) and this is becuase of setup costs and low quantity, mass-production will significantly lower the cost of producing these parts but in my opinion, not low enough to make the products affordable to everyone in the hobby so with the assistance of some other machinist who share my hobby passion (one is a spindle shaft expert) we have decided to find creative ways of producing the parts without sacrificing quality and tolerances while maintaining the required specifications.

Like many avid hobby machinist, I want to increase productivity and increase the quality of the parts I produce and the use of an auto tool changer does this and the goal of this project is to do it at an extremely affordable price that makes it impossible not to consider and I want it completed and available to everyone within 45 days.

The currently available quick-change spindle from IMS was found to be unsuitable to machine aluminum due to tool holder slippage and the other ISO10 tool holder spindle we tested was just as bad and both only came in ER11 collet size and we found this too limiting.

As you can see, I have already started desiging the conversion kit and would like to move to the production phase as the prototype nears completion and mass production make it possible.

The use of ball style retention knob (pull-stud) clamps were very disappointing due to the stress placed on the retention knob which didn't have sufficient force to prevent toolholder slippage and the failure of the retention knobs due to this design far outweighed it's value so we quickly dismissed this as a quality/acceptable solution.

Instead we decided to look at BT30 and BT40 tool change spindles that utilized a 15deg retention knob and decided that these designs were far more effective so we set out to find sources for these products but our findings left us outraged at the cost of the clamps that we just could not accept.

IMSsas, a well known maker of these products offered us just the clamp at a cost of $375.00 and they were the cheaper of the offers we received, finding this to be unacceptable we decided it's time for us to make them at a much more reasonable cost.

The clamp is made from 9160 Spring Steel, hardened and tempered for low wear and maximum strength, we have devised a machining process that allows us to make this part at an extremely reasonable cost at quantities of 25pcs (unheard of in the machining industry) so I can't understand why these companies charge so much for this product.

In our initial clamp testing we had a few failures along the way, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures but we have figured out how to make the part so that it would sustain more than 1700N (the DIN/ISO specification for the 15 series tool holder maximum force) without failure and we're just tweaking the design a little hear and there as we improve the final production technics.

The spindle shaft is made from P20 Tool Steel, hardened to HRC52 making it very strong and wear restant and this is the most important part of a tool change capable spindle, if it doesn't have enough strength it couldn't maintain the allowable TIR under full load.

The toolholders we are having produced for us becuase we just couldn't compete with the stringent tolerances and the cost of having these pieces ground to perfection made it uneconomical to produce ourselves and make them reasonably priced but did find a company who could produce them for us while maintaining the specifications.

The basic tool change spindle conversion components can be installed with hand tools by following simple directions/instructions and you can fabricate the other required components to finish it off with stuff you have laying around or purchase only the parts you need..