"Jon" wrote in message
...
Boy howdy that brings back some memories. I had a shizouka ANS mill with
bandit control and the tool thrower, I mean tool changer. It works pretty
well considering. One thing, it has a claw that opens and closes around
the flange. So your tooling flanges must all be the same size or you have
problems. Also, they tend to need a 45 degree chamfer on each edge of the
flange, about 1/8" The arm takes the tool out of the spindle, then flips
it over and stands it on the threaded end of the holder in a little cup.
The throwing part comes if you have a long or heavy tool, when that arm
swings from spindle to tool storage, while rotating it 180 degrees, it can
toss it at you. DO NOT expect it to change a 3" boring head or tapping
head. Also, you are held to 4-6 inches of quill travel only. The
machines are pretty beefy really, I used mine pretty heavy considering.
Jon
Karl

I had one of those ANS mills too, with the same tool changer. A little
interesting trivia. The tool changer you are talking about was called a
"Quick Draw". I think that is because it kind of looks a gun slinger
flipping out his gun from a holster when it operates. The interesting part
though is who designed and built those tool changers. It was the first
product from the guys who eventually became FADAL!

Gary H. Lucas