[SCzEngrgGroup]

I've started construction of a 10-tool carousel ATC for my mill, and today I had a few hours free, so I got the first few parts made. It is currently configured for TTS tooling, but can be trivially re-configured to work with CAT/ISO-30, as I intend to switch my spindle to 30-taper at some point.

It uses a simple DC gearmotor and a Geneva mechanism for carousel rotation, allowing rapid, accurate positioning using a single digital output and relay, rather than a stepper motor and driver. Hall effect pickups are used to provide both "tool in position" and "home position" sensing on the carousel.

Rather than moving the spindle up and down to grab/release tools, the carousel itself moves up and down under control of a short-throw air cylinder. A second long-throw cylinder swings the carousel into position under the spindle, then retracts it back completely out of the way for machine operation.

Operational sequencing will be provided by a DSP program running on my KFlop, but could just as easily be provided by a Mach3 VB macro if I were using Mach3. The overall mechanism is designed to be simple, and robust, with just enough controlled compliance to enable smooth operation without requiring high precision in either fabrication or operation, and enough feedback for the controlling software to be able to detect nearly all failure mechanisms, and a build-in, inexpensive failure point to protect the bulk of the mechanism from un-detected crashes.

I'm now stalled for a few days, waiting for the rest of the parts to arrive, but hope to have it finished up in the next two weeks or so.

Regards,
Ray L.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

OK, I've had it with CNCZone. This is the third F'ing thread I've started that has been moved by an admin from a perfectly logical location where it could have served many people, to one where it will serve very few people. This was done with no discussion, no notification, and no explanation given. This is BS, and I will not waste any more of my precious time trying to help others by creating threads just to have them moved to Siberia on some anonymous admins whim. This is a d@mned lousy way to administer a forum!

So, anyone who was hoping to get a complete design for an easy to build ATC that could be very easily adapted to almost any kind of milling machine - too bad! You will no longer be able to get it here.

Regards,
Ray L.

[Connor]

Dude that sucks. What thread was it this in to begin with? This isn't the first time I've seen them move threads to a black hole forum. Really ticks me off when they do it. Please don't stop updating it thought. People will find it.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Dude that sucks. What thread was it this in to begin with? This isn't the first time I've seen them move threads to a black hole forum. Really ticks me off when they do it. Please don't stop updating it thought. People will find it.

It was in the Benchtop Machines forum, which is about the busiest forum on CNCZone. As I said, this is the third time this has been done, and I've had it. The other two were moved to places even I couldn't find again a few days later, so all three threads simply died shortly after I started them. Just utter stupidity, as this ATC could EASILY be applied to any but the smallest benchtop machines. I don't know who the admin is over there, but he should get canned.

Regards,
Ray L.

[Connor]

Yup. Going to be working on a ATC for my benchtop. They need to move it back.

[rwskinner]

Looking good Himy!!!

Richard

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Looking good Himy!!!

Richard

Richard,

It's going to be great, but I won't be wasting my time documenting it here, just to risk having it moved again where nobody will find it.

Regards,
Ray L.

[109jb]

Himy,

Really sucks that this was moved. Nice work though.

[asuratman]

Ray,
I tried several times searching and waited for progress, found it here w/new start. I am interested in this taper 30, I have my mill w/BT30.

[Lyfordln1]

I hope you will reconsider and continue to post on here as it looks like an excellent engineered ATC, so far. It can be adapted to almost any machine. Or post it somewhere else and let us know where.It seems to me that this would be an appropriate site for this build.
Many thanks

[neilw20]

I've used web.coms and made multiple pages, all very easy and just put the links to the photos on photobucket or similar. It just works.

Then on the cnczone, just put a links where you think they will be seen, with maybe the odd photo link displaying. The most annoying thing on this site is uploading photos. As long as you never break your links to the photos, it should survive quite well.

Please keep up the good work.

[rwskinner]

Himy, I hope you reconsider as well. I hate to miss out on all your nice work over something so silly.

BTW, IMO, They are totally ruining this site but I guess we don't "have" to be here. I know there is a lot of cost associated with running a site like this because I did for over 10 years. Point is, if you become too over bearing on the ads you run off off your users then it makes it even harder to keep the site going. I hope the owner reconsiders some of his methods.

Richard

I hope you will reconsider and continue to post on here as it looks like an excellent engineered ATC, so far. It can be adapted to almost any machine. Or post it somewhere else and let us know where.It seems to me that this would be an appropriate site for this build.
Many thanks

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Himy, I hope you reconsider as well. I hate to miss out on all your nice work over something so silly.

BTW, IMO, They are totally ruining this site but I guess we don't "have" to be here. I know there is a lot of cost associated with running a site like this because I did for over 10 years. Point is, if you become too over bearing on the ads you run off off your users then it makes it even harder to keep the site going. I hope the owner reconsiders some of his methods.

Richard

Richard,

I have no problem at all with the ads - I use Chrome, with AdBlock, so I never even see them! :-) But, even when I had to see them, I never considered that a problem.

What I do consider a problem is unseen/unknown admins making stupid decisions with no explanation, and no recourse. There are times moving a thread makes perfect sense, but in every case where mine have been moved, it has made no sense at all, as what I was posting applied perfectly well to the machines in the forum where I posted. I'm tired of wasting my time, just to have my threads sent "to the cornfield" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_..._Twilight_Zone)). One time I could accept as an anomaly. Twice was annoying (even though they buried my PDB thread, and I believe I now have the best PDB out there. But now nobody will ever know, as even I can't remember where they buried that thread). Three times is over my limit. I give up! I'll find somewhere else where the admins are more concerned with serving the users interests (and there was clearly plenty of interest in this and the PDB within the Benchtop forum) than obeying seemingly quite arbitrary and illogical rules.

Regards,
Ray L.

[frigger]

No offense but this IS where your posts belong. You have a kneemill and you are making gadgets for IT. There is nothing to do with benchtops. I don't know where your other threads are but they should be here too. I'm sure there are gadgets being made for routers or tormachs or even vmcs that if you made some changes could be adapted to benchtop machines the same as you claim for yours. That doesn't mean they should all be crammed in the benchtop forum either. Like I told you, if you build it they will come. If they don't then you can give links to here. I'm hearing a lot of mellodrama, why the need for the big audience? you think what you offer is better than everyone else's but that's not for you to determine, it's up to us.

[Connor]

No offense but this IS where your posts belong. You have a kneemill and you are making gadgets for IT. There is nothing to do with benchtops. I don't know where your other threads are but they should be here too. I'm sure there are gadgets being made for routers or tormachs or even vmcs that if you made some changes could be adapted to benchtop machines the same as you claim for yours. That doesn't mean they should all be crammed in the benchtop forum either. Like I told you, if you build it they will come. If they don't then you can give links to here. I'm hearing a lot of mellodrama, why the need for the big audience? you think what you offer is better than everyone else's but that's not for you to determine, it's up to us.

Frigger,

I completely disagree with your assessment of this. First off, he didn't say which mill he was building it for. What if he has more than one? The moderator made a very big assumption. Secondly, it's nothing specific to a type of mill, benchtop, knee mill or even a brand. Perhaps he's making a generic ATC that can work with anything. My point is, the moderators over moderate and I believe the forum is too fragmented. Heck, just check with the thread owner before moving a thread and see what he was thinking.

Thanks, Connor

[frigger]

Frigger,

I completely disagree with your assessment of this. First off, he didn't say which mill he was building it for. What if he has more than one? The moderator made a very big assumption. Secondly, it's nothing specific to a type of mill, benchtop, knee mill or even a brand. Perhaps he's making a generic ATC that can work with anything. My point is, the moderators over moderate and I believe the forum is too fragmented. Heck, just check with the thread owner before moving a thread and see what he was thinking.

Thanks, Connor

Then I'm sorry but you are obtuse. The mods are smart enough to read his other threads to know the intent of this one, especially if they already moved them too. here are links to a couple of his last threads started.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/tormac...rmach_atc.html http://www.cnczone.com/forums/mechan...r_drawbar.html this is a quote from ray in the very first line. "I'm building a carousel-style ATC for my knee mill, which will be, in many respects, very similar to the Tormach ATC." sounds perfectly clear.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Then I'm sorry but you are obtuse. The mods are smart enough to read his other threads to know the intent of this one, especially if they already moved them too. here are links to a couple of his last threads started.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/tormac...rmach_atc.html http://www.cnczone.com/forums/mechan...r_drawbar.html this is a quote from ray in the very first line. "I'm building a carousel-style ATC for my knee mill, which will be, in many respects, very similar to the Tormach ATC." sounds perfectly clear.

Well, since you seem to have all the answers.... Perhaps you can explain why the power drawbar thread was MOVED from the Bridgeport forum (it IS on a Bridgeport clone, after all), to Mechanical Calculations Engineering Design forum? And it got merged in a totally ham-fisted manner with the similar thread I posted in Benchtop Machines BECAUSE SEVERAL people there SPECIFICALLY ASKED ME TO POST information about it! You're not going to convince me these decisions aren't totally arbirtrary and capricious (never-mind how inconsiderate they are), and in no way serve the people who would be interested IF they could FIND the d@mned threads. These admins have some agenda, that has nothing to do with serving the interests and needs of the users.

Regards,
Ray L.

[frigger]

no need to get so emotional. i thought you said "The other two were moved to places even I couldn't find again a few days later"? sounds like you know exactly where they are. i couldn't tell you why the one was moved to Mechanical Calculations Engineering Design forum as you said,. i think it belongs here too. the rest of your comments just sound like conspiracy theory. could just be guys doing their job to keep the forums organized to which i say kudos. a guy with a generic kneemill looking for atc info wouldn't first go to the benchtop forum now would he.

[Bubba]

Frigger,
NO, I would do a search for ATC and see what comes up NO MATTER WHERE IT WAS LOCATED!
There are some people that log into the site and ONLY go to certain forums and the Benchtop is one of them. You have been on this site since 2007 and have only 16 posts and most of them seem to be in this thread.
By the way, IIRC, Ray also has an RF31 and that is a benchtop in case you didn't know.
Ray has been a significant provider of information on this site and if he wants to put it in the benchtop forum, who cares? He has provided a tremendous amount of good advice and information for a lot of us.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

no need to get so emotional. i thought you said "The other two were moved to places even I couldn't find again a few days later"? sounds like you know exactly where they are.

I didn't find it, you did. I just followed your link. I wouldn't in a million years think to look there

i couldn't tell you why the one was moved to Mechanical Calculations Engineering Design forum as you said,. i think it belongs here too. the rest of your comments just sound like conspiracy theory. could just be guys doing their job to keep the forums organized to which i say kudos. a guy with a generic kneemill looking for atc info wouldn't first go to the benchtop forum now would he.

No, he wouldn't, but I learned with the PDB thread that if you post the same topic in two forums, they'll get MERGED and MOVED TO SIBERIA, so I chose to put the ATC thread where a) a number of people specifically ASKED me to create a build thread, and b) where the most people would see it, as there is at least 10X more traffic on the Benchtop forum than on any other, and probably 50X what's on the KneeMill, Bridgeport and Mechanical Calculations forums combined.

Regards,
Ray L.