I figured I'd update this with some of my CAD drawings since I'm still finishing up my spindle motor upgrade. This is kind of a road map of what I want to add to my machine, in addition to being actual CAD parts/drawings that I've completed (just waiting on fabrication, testing and improvement). I do most of my work in Solidworks and the rest in Fusion 360, which is also what I use for all my CAM.
1. Upgraded spindle motor with belt drive.
2. Hydraulic power drawbar.
3. 18-tool automatic tool changer (which I'll talk about in another post in the future).
4. 36" x 12" steel fixture plate.
Most of my CAD parts I try to keep pretty basic. For purchased parts where the vendor doesn't have a CAD model, I generally I just model mounting dimensions and the outline of the part. For example, the Baldor motor in the picture above is basically just a truncated cylinder and feet. I didn't worry about modeling cooling vanes, the fan, etc.
For parts that I have to make, I'll flesh them out complete and usually generate a drawing to work from in the shop.
The spindle upgrade is pretty simple in theory. It's just a base to support the new motor and two pulleys, as well as a 10 rib J-belt.
In reality, those pulleys are fairly hard to make. The spindle pulley has to match the spindle splines, which are not a standard broach size. The motor pulley is large, so it was difficult to turn on my tiny lathe (mostly due to limited horsepower), but otherwise fairly straightforward as it just had to fit onto a 1.125" shaft with a 1/4" keyway.
In addition, I had originally designed this so that motor position can be shifted using a pair of screws, so the sides are actually rails. This make installation much, much harder. I have already designed a potential replacement that would not use rails, I'm hoping I can get this installed by switching out the bolts and being creative with my assembly steps, but we'll see. I'll do in an in-depth post on it once I've gotten further along.
This hydraulic power drawbar is very simple. It only requires three parts to be fabricated (although the four tubes do need to be quickly faced and turned to length on a lathe as well). Those three parts are very simple: a plate with six holes and a channel, and a plate with five holes (the center hole does require a single point threading operation, but still not very difficult). It's also pretty cheap -- not shown is the most expensive part, which is the hydraulic intensifier. It uses compressed air to pressurize the hydraulic fluid, and allows for a much more compact assembly with higher output force than even a multi-stage air cylinder would provide. I have everything for this ready to go except the spacer used to hold the Bellevilles in place, which I will get to after I've completed the motor upgrade.
Skipping over talking about the ATC for now, I'd also like to add a fixture plate. I generally use a dual position vise at the moment, but long term my projects will mostly be fixtured, and the convenience that a fixture plate gives in terms of change-overs is great. I'm hoping this will be a quick and fun project sometime this spring.