[Grunblau]

Got around to documenting a couple of small projects I had done awhile back and I thought people on the zone might find them useful.

If you have purchased my CNC plans, chances are these are already in your email!



The first one is the pen holder I used for Maker Faire. It works great!



Please right-click, save as:

CNC Pen Holder PDF

The other one is the digitizing probe I did awhile back....



Please right-click, save as:

Digitizing Probe PDF

Digitizing Probe CAD

:cheers:
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www.grunblau.com

[RTP_Burnsville]

Very nice job..... Thanks for sharing!

Robert

[Bubba]

I really apprecate the thought especially for the probe. I downloaded the pdf file and it looks fantastic. However, I cannot get the dxf as an error page comes up saying the file is not there! I have tried in two different browsers and get the same error:{(
Hope its just me!

[Grunblau]

Okay I uploaded a ZIP archive instead... That should do it.

[Cux350z]

Nice stuff.

What software are you using to capture/run the digitizing?

Scrolled down on the pdf, looks like youre using Mach3. That is good to know.

[aarggh]

Hi Grunblau,

Thanks for putting this online for free mate! Looking at the probe though you mention 6 contact points, but the pdf looks as though it's just movement in the vertical plane? Or am I reading it wrong?

cheers,
Ian

[Grunblau]

Hi Grunblau,

Thanks for putting this online for free mate! Looking at the probe though you mention 6 contact points, but the pdf looks as though it's just movement in the vertical plane? Or am I reading it wrong?

cheers,
Ian

Hi Ian-

On the first page of the probe PDF you see the heart of the probe... Here you can see the 6 point circuit that has to stay in continuous contact or else the machine registers contact. The probe tip can be pushed at a ~10 degree angle. This also instantly causes contact to be broken.

This contact is broken when touched from any angle, including vertical.

Hope this helps,

Brian

[kawazuki]

Sweet share - have to try this one:cheers:

[IBBruin]

Thanks for the inspiration! I didn't follow your plans exactly but it's going to be close enough I'm giving you 100% of the credit.

[Grunblau]

Thanks for the inspiration! I didn't follow your plans exactly but it's going to be close enough I'm giving you 100% of the credit.

Cool.. That's the exactly why I posted these... Just showing how I did it. I am sure that the overall body could have been much smaller than the one I made, for example...

Point is having people know what is involved, present a simple solution and watch people run with it.

[Grunblau]

Here is an 'actual' look into the internals....

[DeadTom]

Brian,
Thanks so much for sharing with the community.
I have a question; now that we can build a very nice probe, thanks to you, what software does one run to digitize with this fine addition to our shops?
I figured this will be asked many times so I just had to be the first.
Thanks again,
Tom

[IBBruin]

Here's a few more of mine. I haven't hooked it up to my router yet to test it but I've checked it with a VOM and it opens the circuit with a little pressure on the probe. It's not as easy as it looks to make a connection across all 6 points at once. I ended up sitting my plates on a slab of marble with some jewelers rouge and lapping it back and forth to flatten all contacts out. I'm sure I just got over zealous when I cut the copper wire. I stuck the springs to the wobble plate with dab of hot glue. That's a 1/4" bolt sticking out the top. My 1/4 router collet clamped on it good enough for a probe. I hope to get a video of it working soon. I'll post it in this thread if you don't mind since your original post was my inspiration. The attached dxf is the final file I used. If you use a .125 end mill the shapes will fit together good. No reason to offset anything.

Edit: I forgot to mention it's 1/4 MDF.

[IBBruin]

I'm trying to insert a photobucket video but can't get it to post.

2012-01-31_19-09-30_112.mp4 video by dgates - Photobucket

[Mr.Chips]

Here is an 'actual' look into the internals....

I went to " http://www.grunblau.com/downloadsbmo.htm" but could not find the probe DXF file. Could you re-post it?
It looks really nice.
Thanks
HH

[IBBruin]

I do have a question about the txt file generated by using the digitizing wizard in Mach. When I open the file that's generated during my probe it only has a list of numbers like this:

1.487484,2.465796,6.346739
1.567484,2.402796,6.334739
1.387484,2.775796,6.395654
1.569484,2.465796,6.391239

These are not the exact numbers but this is the format stored in the file. I understand it's xyz coordinates but there are no M or G codes or feed rates, just numbers. Am I going to have to edit and put in my own M and G codes or did I miss a step somewhere?

[IBBruin]

Question was answered on the Mach forum, sorry for getting off topic.

[Grunblau]

I went to " http://www.grunblau.com/downloadsbmo.htm" but could not find the probe DXF file. Could you re-post it?
It looks really nice.
Thanks
HH

I haven't actually gotten around to updating the webpage. I put that line in the PDF in case it finds itself posted somewhere without the link to the CAD.

The link to the probe cad is in my original post ^

Cheers

[Grunblau]

I'm trying to insert a photobucket video but can't get it to post.

Worked for me! Looks like you shifted around the internal geometry a bit, but seems to work well. If you don't mind, If you found any useful links on the mach forum, you should post them to this thread..

[IBBruin]

This one answered my question about inserting M-Gcodes in the file.

Digitizing wizard results