I picked up a BP Series I rigid ram CNC a few weeks ago. Finally had time to mess with the tooling I recieved with it along with some tooling I picked up on eBay. The Cat30 tooling is held onto the spindle with a sort of nut that is tightened by a C wrench. My problem is that many of the collets and nut don't seem to jive very well. Some have too large an OD to fit up into the nut, some have the flange too thick so the ears in the nut won't engage the collet, and other odd problems of fitting the tooling to the spindle.
Along with the mill I recieved a new Aussie Power Drawbar. The drawbar that came with the unit is for R8 collets. Does anyone make a drawbar that works with the Aussie Power drawbar and Cat30 collets? If not, has anyone ever made a drawbar to mate the Aussie system to Cat30 collets? I don't mind making one if I have to, but I'd like to know if I'd be wasting my time.
One problem I have is that I'm a paraplegic and thought having an air operated brake with tool change capability at table level would address most of my reach problems. I was recently the lucky recipiant of a wheelchair through the VA that allows me to standm, so my reach problems are addressed to a point now. Reaching the actvating handle of the Aussie Power Drawbar is now possible if I install it.
What are the thoughts for tool changing and is there something better out there? The ultimate would be to hit a button, have the tooling drop out, toss a new collet/tool into the spindle and release the button which then has the collet drawn up into the spindle. That's what the collet knobs appear to be for I've seen in pictures, but I havent seen any mechanism for sale that'd do the trick. This leaves me wondering if I can make the Aussie system work.
Thanks in advance for your replies.