This is my third video on the RapidChange ATC I have installed on my AVID CNC. In this video I cover the internal parts that grip the collet nut, and how they are replaced, as well as their durability.
We print them with ABS, I have tested a lot of materials. I settled with ABS because they can absorb the shock without crumbling which is what happend with PC/CF. Under normal use they hold up well. Yes the caps and Bodys are HPDE.
They are really tough. I have seem some printed parts that seem to split apart easily, but I really abused these and none of them split. You must have a good printer :-)
Great video. Also so far I have bought every product you have made a video on and shown a demo on. You do a great job explaining things! Keep the videos coming!
@@pokiejackson3364 LOL. My wife says most of my viewer's wives probably hate me because of the tool expenses, but I just say, "well, now we can make you something nice for the house". 🙂
I had problems initially with it not always being properly centered in the pocket. Turned out to be the cheap roller style limit switches on my machine just werent up to the task. I replaced with some omron switches and better mounting/positioning so they actuate squarely and its been rock solid ever since.
Ya, homing accuracy is very important for this. My machine has proximity sensors and it has always been good, but with regular mechanical switches you would want to have good ones.
i had not seen this before. There is a sort of similar solution from Frank (a diy'er from germany but forgot his name) but this is an elegant solution ...
Another question is why do you show a different spring and nut with balls than what you actually installed in your rapid change? looks like a bigger spring that would not fit and the part with the ball bearings has a large hole and the ones you installed back in had a smaller through hole??
You were paying good attention :-). I was saving that for the next video, but Rapid Change has improved the design. I have one of the last old ones that had about a 5/8" hole in the center. The new design has a 31mm hole. When they sent me replacements they sent 3 old ones and 3 new ones in case I wanted to try the new ones. Of course I did, so I machined out 3 of the pockets to support the new spring and holder so now I have 3 of the new and 3 old. The new size now covers a very high percentage of the bits one would run.
What kind of software is there? I run a printnc with iosender. I was looking at getting a kit but worried about needing to do the leg work in the post processor myself.. For a diy hobbiest I’m kinda lazy…
The only thing the post processor needs to do is insert the m6 macro call in the right spot in the Gcode and call out the correct tool. That is typically already there (it is in Vectric products I know). Then you have a macro for m6 installed in Mach4. They are working on the mach4 screenset yet, but the ones they did for other controllers look nice, so I'm anticipating this one will too.
I have no idea. There are a lot of AVID customers who really need a full blown high end ATC, so if they do an ATC, I think it may be more likely they go that way first. I don't know they they have the resources to support both. Will be interesting to see what they eventually do.
I have been working on a new dust shoe design in my head for a while now. Once I get done testing the ATC if I feel it is something I am going to keep using in the future (I'm not sure that I really need an ATC, I don't do that many bit changes) I will design a shoe that works with it.
I would assume that they are selling them, not giving the files away since they are trying to make a business out of it. You can find contact info for them on their website: rapidchangeatc.com/ One of my goals is to test the wear of these to make sure they last a reasonably long time. So far I haven't seen any issues with these parts unless you do someting dumb like I did.
