[onocyclone]

Hi guys,

Ive been churning an idea over in my head for a few days now on how i could insulate either a tool or a precision dowel accurately enough to use it as a probe or to set a tool without needing a PCB board or plastic board etc like most people use.

I came up with a good idea i think but not sure if it will last very long.

I have a few ATC ER 32 Collet Chucks and wanted to insulate the whole collet away from the holder. Impossible it may sound but i have done it.

It involves using the Parcel tape or its equivalent.

I Taped up the outside of the tapered ER collet and made sure that the diameter had no folds of tape on it. After previous experience any fold will cause a lot of runout on the tool.

With the ER collet there are slots all around the diameter to allow it to spring open and closed i overlapped the tape here and cut down this slot and removed the excess tape. This meant that 1 layer was perfectly on the face. The rest is quite obvious once i was at this stage. I found that when i tightened the collet with the Dowel in the tape torn making a electrical connection with the holder but after a few adjustments with oil and re taping i got it to work.

I then tested the run out of the Dowel and i got +0.01mm which IMO is nothing to worry about haha

Give it a try guys.


Onto the other obstacle i have hit. VB Script.

I need a VB Script so i can use the probe to set the corner of a vice, Centre of a circle, centre of an OD.

Does anyone have these codes or are they out of existence ?

I plan on setting a tool height for this probe tool and use the auto tool Zero VB Button to set the top of a work piece but my Z height VB Script is **** and does not work very well at all Haha

Here is the Code:

CurrentFeed = GetOemDRO(818)
DoSpinStop()

ZMove = 20.00 'Total lenght of Probe to move before Stop or no Contact Made.
ZOffset = 1.60 ' Plate Hight
ZSal = ZOffset + 2.00 '+ Free Hight, Will possition the Proble 2 MM over the Material.

StopZmove = 0
If GetOemLed (825)=0 Then
DoOEMButton (1010)
Code "G4 P2.5"
Code "G31 Z-"& ZMove & "F25"
While IsMoving()
Sleep(200)
Wend
Probepos = GetVar(2002)
If Probepos = - ZMove Then
responce = MsgBox ("**ERROR** " , 4 , "Probe **ERROR**" )
Code "G0 Z10"
StopZmove = 1
Code "F" &CurrentFeed
End If
If StopZmove = 0 Then
Code "G0 Z" & Probepos
While IsMoving ()
Sleep (200)
Wend
Call SetDro (2, ZOffset)
Code "G4 P1"
Code "G0 Z" & ZSal
Code "(Z zeroed)"
Code "F" &CurrentFeed
End If
Else
Code "(Check Ground Probe)"
End If
Exit Sub



Ill add some pictures of the Wrapping of the collet below:


Cheers,


Olly

[onocyclone]

Attachment 275384Attachment 275386Attachment 275388Attachment 275390Attachment 275392Attachment 275394

I did try with blue shrink wrap but it don't work well, it was too thin and when you tighten the collet up It tears and the insulation is broken.

[Fastest1]

Why not use a insulated collar on the probe itself? Say use a 1/2" collet with a 1/2 delrin sleeve with a .375 rod or probe. The delrin bushing/sleeve would be bored to accept the rod. Hood does it this way on his lathe, Hoss on his X2.

[onocyclone]

This way it allows you to do it easily and quickly without the use of any machinery. Ideal in my case.


I downloaded the Hoss ATC Screen set with the touch probe buttons and found them to have some issues, wondering if there is an update to them as the thread was last posted on in 2009 !

The feed rate is WAYY too slow and when the touch probe touches the face of the vice is doesn't go up in z is just goes the wrong way completely and i have to hit the E stop before it breaks something.

Cheers,


Olly