Hey duders..

been a while.. i finally sold my lame-ass mdx-15.. then typically just after i sold it I started to need touch probing..   

Someone posted a probe video on 3dcadjewelry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAHTxzzz91A

which looks like it could do the job? It is running on mach, so will this have the resolution i need? 0.1mm (thats 0.004th for you yankeedoodles stuck in the 18th century..

i would double that at 0.05mm (0.002) but i will settle at 0.1

anyone have info on this? What probe is it, is it good enough, is there better (but still affordable)

(i did try search but info is sporadic and broken up, maybe i was using my "man eyes" as my wife says, if a cohesive thread on this exists, my apologies)

my googling turned up this.. interesting looking project..

http://www.muellerr.ch/engineering/scanner/default.htm




he is achieving 0.15mm but so slow I would die of old age before an average scan was done...


regards
Chris

Chris it ALL depends on what you plan to use it for and how often are you going to us it. You usually get what you pay for. To do high detail probing it takes a LOT of cycles to get it done. IF it is extreme detail then you use a very fine tip and even MORE cycles .

IF it makes you money you may want to find a commercial duty probe. They normally will run millions of cycles without problems. If you "can" get one with the overtravel switch to protect your investment. Mach hase been known to eat a probe every now and then by not stopping when it should.

The overtravel switch hooks to the liimts circuit and trips IF the probe miss cues and does not stop. EVEN more important IF you are going to fast cycle the probing routines.

The process is about as exciting as watching paint dry. (;-) TP

i want to spend 50 dollars and have it scan at 0.01mm in 5 minutes

realistically speaking.. I dont scan that often and usually its only a small area, not much bigger than the coin above (im a jeweller, thing ring size) so i do need high detail, 0.05 or better would be nice. My last scanner (mdx-15 piezo) would scan an onject that size at a xy pitch of 0.1mm in about 4 hours. 0.05 in 8 hours. this is not an issue, my lovely wife would put it in the mornign and by time i get home its odne..

BUT

that was on a seperate machine, the mill is primarily used to also produce my waxes.. so i cant have it offline for 8 hours.. a faster solution required..

any input welcomed

this any good?

http://www.cadcamcadcam.com/probe-tp100probe.aspx

YEP I have one of those too along with a $1800 renishaw. It works very well .

It normally returns inside of .001" and has did .0002" depending on the probing speed. Note that it does not have the safety overtravel  BUT I have not been able to break it yet and MACH has tried a time or two.

It is a nice little hobby probe.

Better Price :

 http://cgi.ebay.com/TOOL-PRESETTER-CALIBRATION-TOUCH-PROBE-/150589666131?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230fd7f353

(;-) TP

the probe above works great.

love your work

K thanks all...  got the bank onto it.. sometimes she lets me buy toys

(i woudl have to grind that probe point down a bit tho.. and reason not to, will damage summing inside it.. bear in mind, by grind im referring to refined jewellers diamond discs.. not an actual grinder.


Thanks Tramalot

Chris,
Have you looked into laser scanning. One of them uses a web cam and then pieces the scan via some software.
The software was around $500.

There is a small portable comercial laser scanner that you can use along with a rotary table. I think the scanner along with software was around $2000.
The end results were around 0.003"  but that depended on distance and think it was 12" away.

Just an option to consider.
RICH

Chris you can BUY very small diam tips, all the way down to a needle point  for the probes(;-).

Will you do this on the XY (flat on the table) or XA/Z in the rotary axis ?

Just curious, (;-) TP

Hi Chris,

Do you think something like this could be adapted to smaller scale higher precision work ? http://www.vectric.org/labs/index.php/laboratory/item/get-kinected-to-your-cnc

Tweakie.