Vern,
Finding the offset that way should be okay....might be difficult, but you should be able to trust that position for that pocket until your crash something (but please don't ).
I don't have a Haas lathe, and neither do I have a tool eye on my lathe, but I've been working on streamlining some of my lathe setup so I can make short run parts with less fussing about. I've probably got a half dozen turning tools almost 'permanently installed' in the tool turret, so their offsets are good for any use, once they are set.
For drills and boring tools, I use a couple of Kennametal KM40 modular tool blocks, which are generally left in place in the tool turret. However, the offsets are all over the place whenever drills and/or bars are swapped. The nice thing about the Kennametal modular tooling, is that everything repeats very accurately when switching tools. This makes saving the offset information practical and useful.
So I've been working on saving this offset information, instead of just writing it down, I'm working on saving it in CAM. You can go to the OneCNC user forum and read my post about using G10 in the suggestions forum. G10 is used simply to load the offsets into the tool register, so if the G10 is within the body of your program, it is a facility to input values into the registers without screwing around with redundant measuring of tools that you've used once before.
I've gone from never using G10 before, to loving the usefulness of it, in only a week or two. Sure, it takes some careful record keeping to set up initially, but just think, whenever you finally crank out a good part, those hard-earned accurate offsets deserve to be saved.
As you will read in the user forum, you can actually save the offset data in the tool drawing, so it will be accessible from any new programs you create, plus you get to visually verify that the tool (which you should accurately draw a 3d model for) is actually the one that you thought it was
Maybe that is more than you wanted to know. But I hope by suggesting the idea, it might spark an idea or two in your mind, to reduce the fussing about of getting the lathe ready to make parts......
Having suggested that, I should also warn that using G10 for work offset and tool offsets is not without danger if you are a sloppy record keeper. Correct correspondence between the tools and their associated G10 offsets is essential.
I'm open to comments from other lathe programmers/machinists about doing this sort of thing. Theoretically it sounds good
First you get good, then you get fast. Then grouchiness sets in.
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)