rycodog, It depends upon how many different tools you need. I have seen two to three seperate routers mounted on a moving gantry. Each one has its own Z axis. You can either cut two parts at once or use two different cutters and use a coordinate offset in the programming to handle the Y difference.
I think that Shopbot has this option.
A word of caution, if you have 4' in Y motion and the router heads are 1' apart, it drops your total bed coverage down to 3'. You have to buy an extra 1' of travel.
$7000 seems fairly cheap to me for a working toolchanger. (Assuming it works as I have no experience with a Techno router.)
A less expensive option would be to have a power drawbar and use preset tools. You still have to be there to swap the tools, it just goes pretty fast.
Good luck. |