Hey guys,

I have recently had a need to make several bit changes during some semi-production runs I have been making. I wanted to be able to change the bit at any location of the Y axis travel without having to remove the material to be cut.

I made the components out of an old street sign that just happened to be laying out behind the shop. The parts are all 1/4" in width. I built this on the fly so I do not currently have a dimensional drawing of it. If anyone would like I can whip one up here before to long. The street sign was 1/8" thick so I think it may be possible to make this mod out of 1/8" ply. There is only one part that would have to be redesigned if ply was used. The piece I used to hinge the device had to be twisted to allow a flush mount.



The end of the actuator piece is beveled on the end to allow it to slide easily over top of the the collet lock.


After installing everything I found that the actuator was to far out and would hit the machine deck before the bit collet was fully exposed. Therefore, the lever had to be modified again to position it in the center of the deck slot.



The lip on the side of the flex shaft had to be trimmed down to accept the actuator piece.


This is the mod engaged to the bit lock.


Installed and engaged


Here it is disengaged.


Installed and disengaged.



Well, That's it. Just let me know if I've left anything out or if there is interest in a sketchup of the mod.

Robert Attached files

 

I'm in oh (sp), so simple yet so affective. You da man, Robert!

 

@Tigerpilot "awe"

Really nice mod, it never looked that easy to change the bit in the MKI or II.