Re: DIY probing

Hello all,

I once got to watch a master machinist in a major plastics factory
digitize a dodge hood ornament on a very large Milltronics gantry
mill. I think the software was MasterCam but, I'm not sure. He was
able to specify his own XY grid pattern and even arcs, curves and
circles. Also, he could specify islands as to miss vertical walls
and pockets. I do know that he tried different default grid scanning
patterns before having to write his own to get the desired result.
It made a difference in performance if the probe was falling off or
climbing up the Z axis. For anyone writing a program I think being
able to specify the path of the scan would be important. The machine
hardware and software was all big name and big $ and still quite
slow. If the object you are digitizing has large flat areas of
easily measurable surfaces there would be a great time savings if
you could omit that area in the scan and just add it by hand with
your favorite CAD program. This might be a dumb example but, say
your scanning an ash tray with a very detailed outer rim but the
bottom is just plain flat.

Sorry I can't be more exact about the software and probe, I was
there to wire a new warehouse and didn't have enough time to soak
everything in. I will stop by and tell him about the CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO
list and invite him to join.

Jim

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., ccs@m... wrote:
>
> Anyone have plans or ideas for an inexpensive shop-built contact
probe?
>
> I keep being amazed by cheap import indicators (plunger and lever
> style) and being tempted to try to detect the needle position
> optically. Say put a thin sheet metal flag on the needle that will
> block a photointerrupter like used for home switches... or even
put a
> rotary encoder wheel on the indicator.
>
> Chris