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Re: What ToolSetter do you use?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
keen
I know the early Renishaw toolsetter was based off its probe design, (yes the "Renishaw 3-ball/6-cylinder kinematic restraint mechanism that is often used in touch probes?" ) but they may have advanced past that now. Not sure.
I'd been considering a Tormach ETS for quite some time and watched the price hike from under $800 to $1295 - it all went pretty quick too! I also tried a cheap ebay ETS but also found the quality far too poor. Finally I picked up one of these on ebay:
Attachment 445220
It's the older design but absolutely unused. A little over-the-top for a Tormach? Well not really, it cost me LESS than the pre-hike price of the Tormach ETS!
The head rotates inside the black body and adjustment screws on the base both combine to allow the top of the head to be aligned with the machine. It has a replaceable "break stem" between the body and the vertical head to protect the probe against crashes (I bought a couple of additional replacements). Obviously this has capabilities beyond those of a simple ETS but they're not really much use on a Tormach, but that won't stop me playing around :). I haven't actually tried it yet due to other priorities but I'll get around to it in the next week or two.
Step
Re: What ToolSetter do you use?
Nice! Any idea of the internals? Is it just a normal Renishaw MP3 turned on its side or something fancier? How do you adjust the test platform to be horizontal? Are the "break stems" the usual Renishaw 4mm male/female ceramic pieces or...?
Re: What ToolSetter do you use?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
John Roberts
Hi Cliff, the LED style tool height setter might take a few more seconds. Move the tool down till the light comes on, move it up till the light goes off, then jog it down till the light comes on again. Done. One can also feel the resistance on the tool against the spring by jiggling the setter sideways as a double check. It works for me and probably many others.
I have not had any issues using this method. The platform on my setter is only 1/4" dia. Most of my tools I use are smaller than 6mm but on larger cutters I just come down on one flute of cutter without noticing any accuracy issues.
On the mini dial indicator that you are converting, I am not sure if it is necessary to have a dia platform as large as your blue setter? How are you going to maintain a fixed height on your setter. Can you lock the dial or have you other plans!
Hi John. I see, you pass though it and back up you find is quick. Makes sense.
Re indicator fixed height design. Just at the research stage, a few options up in the air. Fixed buttons either side or a plunger lock, or maybe a movable block underneath.
Cheers Cliff
4 Attachment(s)
Re: What ToolSetter do you use?
One more ets strategy not covered above but useful to understand for many manual collet tool change users "routers"
This is the unit sold with the 24r system. The touch off button / plunger does not appear to move or wiggle much at all. Using PP all my router programs return to the e.t.s. and touch off in the same spot every time. No special setup just follow pp prompts. After completing those steps the actual height of trigger point is determined and set as a stored value.
Attachment 445260
Note plastic location ring at base of e.t.s. This is used to locate the e.t.s at same location on router table if you move it to clean. Also the ets can be moved and used to set g54-g59 ucs z height by setting ets on desired work surface and touching off.
Attachment 445262
This is another way to set u.c.s z offsets in addition to more normal methods like direct tool to work surface with feeler guage.
I also keep a small guard to and "cover in background" to keep ets cleaner during use. The round guard also acts as a platform for manual tool changes when prompted during a program.
Attachment 445264
The ets for setting tool heights and part z offset height combined with a electronic-probe for finding part x-y offset edges makes a decent accurate system for this type of machine and collet held tools.
Also the machine has dedicated ports for both tools to make it easy to use.
Attachment 445266
Hope this helps others with this concept.
Sorry no music machining videos :)
Re: What ToolSetter do you use?
Edit above post:
The ets can be moved and used to set g54-g59 ucs z height by setting ets on desired work surface and touching off.
First set a tool number, then measure that tool. then move ets to z work surface. Move tool over ets and go to work offsets page. select work offset and press button on right set z offset. This will automatically measure the height from surface with ets and subtract the touch off height of the ets. Very fast repeatable way to set z work offset with an ets and no need to jog z down to a feeler guage.
Re: What ToolSetter do you use?
Just for reference
Tormach just posted a video showing the above ets using the strategy I mentioned above to set z part offset. Then used ets to set tool heights for rest of program normally.
https://youtu.be/QT5HSfPUcC8
Re: What ToolSetter do you use?
Thanks for those posts. Cliff