Milling Spindle Mounting Orientation

[designfugitives]

I've seen various ways a spindle is mounted.  We will be testing on foam and HDP first before getting into wood.  Any recommendation on orientation and literature regarding this? 

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello,

What you always want to avoid with robot tools are singularities (and collisions, of course). If the robot is placed on the floor, the most common singularity would be when A5 is close to 0.
How to mount your spindle depends on the following things...
Where is the object - usually - placed in relation to the robot? E.g. the height of a clamping table has got a large effect on how tilted A5 is.
Is there a primary direction you want to work in? E.g. mostly Z+ 3-axis milling or more sculpting on a turntable from the side.
And there is of course the mounting of the spindle. Usually you need to screw from two sides (adapter plate to the robot, spindle to the adapter plate) which can be a problem if the two hole patterns overlap. Then you need a more complex construction anyway. If you can get by with a simple, flat adapter plate I would start from there and collect experience, with the goal of optimizing it later on.

Best,
Johannes