Howdy! I've been using an XCarve for a few years now, and am finally ready to upgrade to a proper, custom-CNC-converted mill. In many respects, the Taig 5019CR Ball-Screw mill is perfect for my needs: I'll be doing small, precise work in aluminum. Doesn't matter if I have to take cuts slow - not using this to make money - and the work envelope is plenty.
That being said, one of my biggest pet-peeves with the XCarve is tool-changes and touch-off. Every single tool-change means breaking out the collet wrench, carefully swapping end-mills, and then hooking up an alligator clip for an electric height measurement. It makes me dread multi-tool operations, and hey, hobby CNC should be joyful and fun, not dreadful.
So, for this in-the-planning-stages new mill, I see three options:
Plan A) Find a mill with a drawbar and tool holder spindle. Get tool holders for all my end-mills, pre-measure their lengths, and enjoy the bliss of touch-off-free CNC. The issue here is: I can't seem to find a small benchtop mill that accepts tool-holders. Is my only option a Tormach?! I'm looking for something in the $3k range :|
Plan B) Assuming no such tool holder wundermill exists, get the Taig and add a toolsetter. Something like this: https://drewtronics.org/ts1000 though perhaps cheaper and smaller. Anyone have recommendations here? I need to hit a ~thou repeatability, so I don't want to buy cheap junk, but I'm hoping there's something in the middle, maybe in the $150 range, that can measure reliably.
I would still have to use a collet wrench, but I could build an automatic tool-setter cycle into my tool-changes (yay LinuxCNC), and the dreaded alligator clip would be no more. The main downside, I think, is the large footprint on my table. Again, I don't need *that* big of a work envelope, but I'd like to be able to use all of what I bought! It would also limit the max measurable Z-length of my tools.
Plan C) Keep using the alligator clip, and do electrical probing off a cheap gage block clamped to the bed. This is cheaper than a toolsetter and would take up less space (both in bed area and in Z-height), but I'm not actually sure if it would work. Unlike the XCarve, everything is metal here; worried there might already be an electrical path between the spindle and the bed. Anyone have experience on this?
Thanks everyone, and take care!