[Rwinter136]

So we did a system restore on our machine and now we are having some issues. The machinist was setting up his job and went to probe his tools and they all came up as the positive length of the tool and not the actual distance of the z axis travel. All the tools that were probed before the system restore were saved and are showing the distance of the z travel and not the actual length of the tool. We tried to run a g68 with no tool in the spindle and that didn't work. The spindle doesn't come down and touch the probe. It alarmed out the machine and now we cannot probe any tools. Every time we go to probe a tool now we get an alarm that says "Z surface dimension of the tool probe is unknown". I'm not very familiar with cnc machines so sorry if this thread is confusing. I'm just a maintenance guy.

[Rwinter136]

So I was able to calibrate the probe with the spindle but we are still having the same issue with the tool length. It seems like there should be a simple parameter to change in the tool probe setting but I can't seem to find any that work. I should have mentioned this is the first thread but I'm working with a Tree 1060 with the vickers controls and a reinshaw TS27R.

[Rwinter136]

So after doing some searching and learning some of this machinist lingo I figured out that what I really want is to have the probe give me negative offsets instead of positive (I think). Like I said before I am not a machinist just the maintenance guy. I'm having a really hard time getting ahold of anyone that knows about Tree VMCs

[Rocketspool]

Good luck! I had two Tree VMC 500's and sold them because Tree is no longer in business and finding support or people that know anything about them is horrific and a job just in itself.

I do have a few contacts based out of Minnesota that are somewhat Tree familiar. I can hook you up with their contact info if interested.

[zpsbob]

All of us at ZPS-CNC USA handle the support and have since ZPS stopped supplying the machines to TREE. We have done everything we can to make the path for information and support simple, we even "bought" TREE's old phone number so end users wouldn't have to search us out. The 500, 750, 760, 840, 1050, 1050e, 1060, 1260, 1260e, 1680, 2080, and some of the knee mills are all still supported. Some of the early knee mill products are a bit sketchy but we do the best we can.

Rant on:
I've found over the years that the distributors seem to be the biggest issue with the support on the older machines. They will put fear into the end users that there is no more support, out of business, etc as a tactic to sell you their newest, latest and greatest equipment, I could cite examples until I'm blue in the face. I sleep very well at night knowing we don't use those tactics to sell our new machinery.
End rant.