Originally Posted by
Paul_V
Over the past few days I have been calibrating, setting up the temporary work surface and sacrificial sheet. I've tried out my environment from design to shop floor with small test cases and on Saturday I was ready to cut my first cabinet.
Put the sheet on the bed, started the program.. it went to pick up its first tool... and... it only partially picked it up. The spindle was moaning and groaning and the bit was only partially rotating. I stopped everything, gave the tool holder a wiggle and it snapped into place. This is exactly what happened to the original spindle for this machine... and like that first spindle... I am no longer able to eject the tool holder. Like the first spindle, I am still able to use it with whatever bit is in it... but I can no longer use the ATC.
Watching tool changes, it appeared to me that there was always excessive force required for the spindle to release the tool holder... the tool rack flexed quite a bit during this procedure! I also noticed during the last several tool changes that the spindle didn't seem to go low enough to pick up the new tool so I would stop, check the alignment, eject and manually re-install the tool holder. With each successive change, it appeared that the spindle was sitting a bit higher than the time before... as if the atc drawbar was being bent out of shape each time a tool holder was released... causing it to interfere more and more with the next tool pickup. Simply conjecture on my part.. but plausible?
After being so close, it's disheartening to take such a major step backwards. I would hate to try to put a $ value on what this has cost me. The price of the machine is only a small part! The disruption to my shop as it lay torn apart waiting for the machine to become operational, the lost opportunities, the time invested that could have been spent with family and friends and the time lost from growing my business is the much bigger part.
There isn't much more for me to say in this thread about the quality of this machine... there simply is none!