[ballistic42]

I have bought a G0704 and have been working on it for a while. I now have the machine done. I am going to mill out the plates for a 4th axis now that I have the mill perfected. Here is a link to a quick video of the atc changing tools.
https://www.instagram.com/jeffreylon...=1t8shkpdxnrct

Thanks for watching.

[CL_MotoTech]

Gorgeous. Any details you feel comfortable sharing on the ATC?

Also, working link: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnpgCEgjDV/

[ballistic42]

Thanks has taken me a while to get to this point as I have this thing that gets in my way called a job....lol. Everything has checks to make sure that if the atc gets hung up the program will stop. I am in the process of putting the back of the enclosure back on. I should up and running again next week. I will post more photos as I can upload them. What I like about the atc is I can run a part start it and then walk away and let the machine work. I had to slow down the atc change sequence because it was going way to fast. Made me nervous the first time I ran the changer.

[CL_MotoTech]

I can understand your interest in running start to finish. I generally work on other stuff while my machine runs and since I do manual tool changes I am constantly getting interrupted.

How much roughly do you think you invested to build the ATC? Also, what spindle motor are you running?

[ballistic42]

Well I have $1200 in the ATC. That includes the metal, linear rails, mounting tower, tecknic servo motor, gear box, forks and all. Was not easy to build but some said you could not build a 12 tool ATC for the G0704, they were wrong. I was not sure I could get it done but that being said I would make some modifications to another one. I would for sure make the tower a little different. I learned about Mach3 and how to program from doing it with the help from SAM! The big benefit from this mill is how the mechanics work. I will soon make a video of the mill milking out some parts changing tools 8 times. Hope it does not mess up! It gets ugly when the ATC crashes! When I run the atc with the M6 it does fine it’s when I get in a hurry and do it manually and crash it by my own doing. I have learned let the program change the tool. The M6 macro tracks what tool is in the spindle at all times.

[CL_MotoTech]

Not really all that expensive considering the results. I'm looking forward to more video!

[vmax549]

Hiya Jeff I see you got it all going. You KNOW you can set it up to handle Tool#s outside of the carrosel range as an auto function as well. IF the slot# is greater than 12 then remove current tool and wait for you to manually install the next tool. When it is in then push cycle start and off it goes. It takes 99% of mistakes out of the equation.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

[arizonavideo]

Really nice.

Did you use mach3 to run the changer by a macro or did you build a separate board?

[Fastest1]

Nice in every detail , not just the changer.