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Went back to manual probing after 12 years of presets
Back in 2007 at the shop in Cleveland we got our first wireless probe and I never looked back. Last month the spindle bearing started acting up on the VMC and the probe bracket got bent, so I had to edge find and set Z by touch for a week while the replacement came in. Honestly it was slower but I caught a fixture offset error I had been trusting blindly, the part was off by .003 and the probe never flagged it. I fixed the fixture and now I'm second guessing whether I should keep the manual habit once a month or just let the probe do its thing. Anyone else still do a manual check on the first part of a run even with a working probe?
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johnson.eva1mo ago
Man, that .003 you caught is exactly why I do it. I run a Haas and my probe has been solid for years but I still touch off the first part with a .0005 indicator on the vise jaw and the top of the stock before I hit start. Takes three extra minutes and yeah sometimes it agrees with the probe, but sometimes it doesn't, and that's the whole point. Last time it didn't agree the probe tip had a tiny chip in the ball and I never would have known, it was reading fine on the display. So really you're not just checking the offsets, you're checking the probe itself. Once a month or first part of a new setup, either way, keep the habit.
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