TTS - Should I Do It?

[MontanaAardvark]

Well that's the thing about CNC. Are you making one part or several of the same part? On a one-off part doing manual tool changes there may not be much different from a time savings aspect when you consider tool setup and entering tools into the tool table. On multiple parts with multiple tools it pays off in time savings. For hobby work its really a personal preference. For me adding the pneumatic draw bar and TTS system has been part of the journey and learning experience.

So far, I've never made the same thing twice. That could be changing, but it's not like I can't decide to add the TTS later.

I think that for my purposes, there are better uses of funds. I'll be starting a thread about one of those either later tonight or in the morning.

 

[spumco]

Consider making a few 3/4" shank set screw holders with TTS features. As I said, they're cheap to make, and if you don't already have a couple of reamers you will probably need them later - maybe for dowel pins. I don't think a tiny bit of runout or vibration is a big concern if you've got a max spindle RPM <6k. We aren't running 1/16" carbide end mills at 24k here. At least I'm not...

Once you have a few, you can play with the TTS system for $50 in materials and zero modifications to your machine. At the very least, you'll be running the same 3/4" collet for those holders, so it's easy to switch things out.

In the future, if you like it, you can shop for new tooling like insert mills or fly cutters that already have 3/4" shanks and just add a flange to them with some epoxy and maybe a C-clip. You're still at zero machine mods and no 'specialized' accessories.

I should mention that if you don't have a lathe, you can do a TTS holder by mill-turning the stock and in the mill spindle. Yet another thing I need to learn more about.