[wwendorf]

I just wanted to take a moment and tell you all a story about the experience I had recently with a company that I found out about on here. The company name is CNCNeeds and they manufacture the TLO Setter II device which makes setting up your tools fast and simple, and no fuss.

Anyway, I have been wanted a TLO Setter II for sometime now, and I finally broke down and bought one. Let me first say, I was very impressed with the device, it worked great, even with the built in touch off and tool setting routines in the Tormach version of Mach3. The only grumble I had was about switching from active to passive mode, as I have the passive touch probe that Tormach sells, and the TLO Setter II is active mode. I knew this, and I still ordered it, and like the product very much, minus my grumble.

On a whim, I sent an email back to John Muse, one of the guys from CNCNeeds, and asked him if there were some way to create a passive mode tool setter. He happened to be away from his mill, and didn't have anything to test the possibility out, so he asked me to do a bunch of testing for him. Well, in a few short weeks, he came up with a test cable for me to run some tests, and shortly after that, he told me to send my active mode TLOSetterII back, and he sent me a passive mode setter. Their new product works FLAWLESSLY I'm happy to say, and I wanted to thank them in short by letting everyone else know about their great product!

I have honestly never had such accurately set tools (and I had a pretty darn good method of setting up tools too). My machining has gotten a ton more accurate, with very little effort on my part. In my testing, I'm getting at least .0005" accuracy. That's is great for anything I machine.

I'm happy to answer any questions about my experience with the guys at CNCNeeds, but I encourage you to email them directly and get their product, and get the experience of dealing with them yourself. You won't be disappointed.

Their tool setter is a very affordable option that works just as well as more expensive options out there, and it now works whether you have the active probe, or the passive probe.

Cheers, and happy machining!

Wade

[mioduz]

I really want one but not being coolant proof really puts a damper on the idea for me

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[wwendorf]

Hi mioduz,

Just curious, but why is it not being coolant proof a deal breaker?

I've never needed to use a touchoff routine on each tool change as the TTS tool system is repeatable on tool height offsets. If you use a Tool 0 to initially setup the hieght of the button on the toolsetter, all you have to do is run the "touch off" routine on the ATC and you are done. If you don't have an ATC, you just insert tool 0, set the hight, then switch to the tools you want to set the height for, change the tool number on the Z touchprobe screen (same place you go to set the height of the tlosetter, and tell it to set the tool height.

Then, whenever you are starting a new project, you setup Z0 with Tool 0, and all of your other tools heights are set to conform.

No reason to do a touchoff on each tool change.

Wade

[mioduz]

Wade I am interested in having a macro run a sequence to check for broken tool before each tool change. With the tool changer permanently mounted to a corner of the table after each operation the machine should rapid over the tool setter, air blast possibly to clean the setter, feed down and measure tool length. If tool length is > or < original tool length (+- some kind of acceptable variance variable). If not within tolerance wait for operator input. If within tolerance continue tool change operation and start next cycle. This would allow you to run longer cycles without 100% attention since it will detect a broken tool automatically. I do not have the luxury of being able to just scrap out my work piece and start over. Many times working in exotic metals, or possibly previously machined parts that cost 500-1000 to replace.

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[wwendorf]

Ah, I gotcha. I can see your point. Your needs are radically different. Perhaps you could check into their original tool setter (if they have any left) which bolted to the table, and seal it inside a plastic bag or some other sort of membrane to keep it water tight?

Wade

[mioduz]

I'm afraid that likely I will need to get the tormach one to get the function that I want. My other issue other than price of tormach is the fact that I will need to buy the active touch probe. So there goes about 2k $

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