I received 30 new Darkon collet chucks today - 20 ER20s and 10 ER32s. They are absolutely beautifully made!
I also got several more parts made today including these little parts, which are part of the mechanism for sensing whether a tool is loaded into each slot of the carousel:
Attachment 282872
I used what I think is an interesting approach to making these. They would probably typically be made on a lathe, but I don't enjoy lathe work, my lathe is a piece of junk, and not CNC'd. So, I mounted a 4-1/2" piece of 1" round stock in a vertical 3-jaw chuck, milled all the features in the end, then used a slitting saw to part it off. Then use G52 to shift the origin down, and repeat, making 6 parts from the one piece of stock. The whole thing went beautifully, and took only about 90 seconds per part - would've been faster with a gang fixture, and a TTS-friendly slitting saw (I am ordering one of the Tormach arbors...). The slitting saw even leaves a really cool finish.
Attachment 282876
VID 20150610 161038028 - YouTube
Regards,
Ray L.