This forum continues to amaze me. You guys have been so helpful and forthcoming. I hope I'll get the opportunity to return favors somehow to the individuals that have truly helped me understand not only the answers I've sought, but the correct questions to ask. You guys know who you are. Thank you.
I thought I'd run a rough strategy past you guys and see if anyone had any more sage advice to offer...:)
I've got a TM1-P showing up in roughly a week -which is AWESOME!- and I'm looking at how to get off the ground in a way that makes some sense with tooling.
One of the incentives that was thrown into the deal I got was a Kennametal tooling certificate. Basically what I'm trying to figure out is what quality level stuff I should press into service as well as a strategy for CAT 40 tool holders. What should I use the Kennametal cert for?
This machine is a 7.5 horse, 6000 RPM spindle and is comparatively light duty. So my thinking is that there's no need to pay a premium for accuracy that I'll never approach. GMT has a deal for 6 CAT40 tool holders for ER collets with the pull studs for 599.00... They've also got endmill holders for around 70.00 each, and CAT40 keyless drill chucks for 139.00... (not sure keyless is the best call...) Anyway, I'm leaning towards these guys as my source for tool holding. Anybody have any feedback or seen anything else out there that's comparable?
...which gets me to the second part of the strategy...
Rather than buy an assortment of collets and endmill holders, what do you guys think about stacking 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" holders, then buying endmills of those three shank diameters? The idea is that I'd have more flexibility with the extra tool holders not in the ATC. Obviously I could always buy one ER25 collet set and one ER holder too to cover myself for inevitable random needs...
I'd like to have three drill chucks and something like 10 more holders at the outset. Maybe three 1/4",3/8", and 1/2" tool holders plus a facemill holder...
Anyway, that's the strategy I'm considering. I'm pretty green behind the ears with this though, so any thoughts are much appreciated.
I thought I'd run a rough strategy past you guys and see if anyone had any more sage advice to offer...:)
I've got a TM1-P showing up in roughly a week -which is AWESOME!- and I'm looking at how to get off the ground in a way that makes some sense with tooling.
One of the incentives that was thrown into the deal I got was a Kennametal tooling certificate. Basically what I'm trying to figure out is what quality level stuff I should press into service as well as a strategy for CAT 40 tool holders. What should I use the Kennametal cert for?
This machine is a 7.5 horse, 6000 RPM spindle and is comparatively light duty. So my thinking is that there's no need to pay a premium for accuracy that I'll never approach. GMT has a deal for 6 CAT40 tool holders for ER collets with the pull studs for 599.00... They've also got endmill holders for around 70.00 each, and CAT40 keyless drill chucks for 139.00... (not sure keyless is the best call...) Anyway, I'm leaning towards these guys as my source for tool holding. Anybody have any feedback or seen anything else out there that's comparable?
...which gets me to the second part of the strategy...
Rather than buy an assortment of collets and endmill holders, what do you guys think about stacking 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" holders, then buying endmills of those three shank diameters? The idea is that I'd have more flexibility with the extra tool holders not in the ATC. Obviously I could always buy one ER25 collet set and one ER holder too to cover myself for inevitable random needs...
I'd like to have three drill chucks and something like 10 more holders at the outset. Maybe three 1/4",3/8", and 1/2" tool holders plus a facemill holder...
Anyway, that's the strategy I'm considering. I'm pretty green behind the ears with this though, so any thoughts are much appreciated.