tool changes

My intro: Roland inspired me to get into CNC through his Home Shop
Machinist column. He helped me over the phone too. I have a mill/drill
and Sherline mill that are converted. Dan Mauch has supplied me with a lot
of parts and a lot of help. Kevin Carroll helped me with his Ericsson
stepper drive design. I made a couple of controllers with them. I just
bought a pc board from Dan to make another one (I got tired of making the
pc boards). I have built a stepper controller at work to control a motion
control unit for a 3D UV curing oven.
Recently, I have been interested in the Nist EMC project. Jon Elson has
been very helpful with this. He has a servo amp kit that takes advantage
of this free and powerful CNC software.
My next project will be to set up the EMC controller on another computer.
It involves setting up Linux, which I have done before, but am not good at.
I really need some help getting this up and running. The last time I set
it up I ended up removing it because things were going wacky.

As you can see, this group is very integrated. Most of us have talked to
each other before. It's great that we have a forum ( I was getting tired
of "How do you get a chuck unstuck?" or "What's the best milling machine to
buy?" on rec.crafts.metalworking). We will come up with a lot of good
discussion.

Tool change question:
I have been using Maxnc software on my CNC mill/drill and have found that I
can make a tool change and touch off on the top of the part with little
problem. The biggest problem is the fact that it is a round column
mill/drill that makes moving the head up and down tricky. Most of the
time, I try to put the work in a vice and then I will jog the spindle away
from the part to get clearance. Jog back when finished and touch off. The
fabled RF-45 mill/drill, with dovetail column would work a lot better. (I
say fabled because I know of only a few people who have them and Rong Fu
doesn't seem to promote them.) An RF-45 would make a real nice CNC
conversion. Anyone have one out there?

My question to the group is: Who is now using EDM in their home shop and
what are you using it for?
I know about the tap busters, but what about die work? How about wire EDM?

Thanks,
Dan Falck
Nashville, TN.