Popping my lurking head up again. Been looking at a few needs, and found a big question, that's rather confusing me. Even cheap CNC routers have rather expensive tool changers, even for how simple they are. Shopbot for example wants over 15K for a tool changer option. This by itself seems absurd, even as I learn more about how much machining parts costs.

Tormach has the full mill tool changer for 6K, including the power drawbar. The drawbar itself is rather telling, since it's only 1200 or so, and it's 99% of the physical side of the rack style changers most routers use. So, are they really spending 10K+ per machine on software to make a tool change?

the pictures of the BT30 style drawbar system doesn't seem like it should be that difficult to make. It looks like the TTS just uses a collet, is that right? It still seems there's a radical disconnect between how much this stuff is costing and how much it could/should cost.