snowshovelbmx:

If it was not work, it would be a nice trip........ I HATE dealing with the TSA and Airports, I have found that they hire the people who score the absolute Lowest on the Government service exam, then if they fail the common sence/Courtesy exam they are promoted...........

Others:

Spindle bearings, the bearings resist normally a down ward force from the stock Nut when you tighten the nut to lock in a holder. Thus the nut is pushing the Top Bearings down, which they are designed to resist. The Tool changer push rod also pushes down in the same direction as the force of the OEM nut. The lower bearings in both cases only experience the normal upward load of the top nut pulling the holder up. When the top nut, OR, the push rod pushes down, all that does is Push the Tool holder out.

My Draw bar design: As Discussed prior to build with Greg, the Price needed to stay as low as possible but yet stay industrial quality. So, the Design was keep as simple and functional a possible. I could have done many other ways, but all would have been more expensive. There comes a point where the Market will not bear the cost for an ATC no matter how snazzy it is. The Mill head is VERY tight, it was a request to keep as much or all components as contained within the head as possible, both for cosmetic as well as trying to keep moving parts within the Mill Head door, so the door switch could work for the moving components as well.

I have many other ideas to make it more compact and a lot of other mounting/functional options, BUT, they all entail increasing the overall cost/coplexity of the unit.

IMHO, there is a very limited number of mount points available in the Head that still allow motor movement for belt changing and all to be enclosed by the Mill head shroud.

I could have just as easily made a "Swap Arm" tool changer, like on Big Comercial Machines, but the last one like that I did with only 16 tools ran about 6k just for the physical ATC, did not include programming, mounting, debugging etc.

scott