Update: probe arrived, connection made, stylus installed (Renishaw, 15mm long, 1.5mm ball).
I had to install ProbeIt Turn (30 dollars VERY well spent!).
Here are the problems I had to solve: the software can't handle both big diameter ruby tips. 3mm with a step over of 0.5mm won't happen.
If you need a small step over like 0.2 or 0.3mm you need a 1.5 or 1.0 ruby tip.
The software is very easy to use but it needs many points and very close together to behave in a reliable way.
Export is both points and lines Ina DXF file, easily imported into any cad program.
Installation is very easy if you know how to solder two wires and how electricity works... I don't so I asked a friend and watched him doing it. It was easy...
You have to map one of the input channels to Digitize. The probe is always short circuited unless you open it by pressing the probe. This is for safety, makes sense...
The logic of the ProbeIt Turn is simple and clever: you first touch off the piece telling the wizard how big is the radius it's touching. Then you tell it how to move (clock or counter-clock wise) and then it will start probing. Every touch it makes it will move further on the side. If it senses the surface is curving it will try to guess the corner radius and thus it will make a "side step" that will follow the surface to be always square to it.
Problems: the stylus is always prone to some bending when it touches the surface, this depends on the stylus length, thickness, probing feed and probe sensitivity.
All of this can be solved by a little bit of math: you prove an external diameter, then an internal diameter. You calculate how smaller the distance is and this is the error. Divide it by two and make an offset of the scanned profile. Then simply translate the profile towards the center by that amount.
If you have backlash just enable the correction under Mach3, it will be cured properly.
The final test was to cut a mouthpiece with my lathe and then immediately scanning it.
I made a few cross checks and the measures are off by less than 1/100th of a mm!
There won't be many trumpet players here but this procedure can be useful for other purposes as well.
Have a good day!
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