Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Tool changing?

You should be able to 'gage each tool ahead of time... assuming you have
several MT2 collet holders. Start with the longest tool, and call it "0.00"
length offset, then compare the next longest, and if it's 0.596" shorter,
call it's length offset "0.596", and continue in that fashion. If your
software does it opposite, call the shortest tool "0.00", and the longer
one "-0.596" if that's the case. A little experimenting ahead of time will
help. Hopefullr, your MT2 holders (and, I hope you have more than one of
'em) are the 'drawbar' type, wherein the taper is 'drawn' in place with a
screwthread, and extracted in a similar fashion. Otherwise, your idea of
making stops might be feasible, but if you can't do that, make a breakpoint
in your program to allow you to enter the Manual Mode, and do an 'air cut'
over a patch of bluing dye to gage 'true' Z0.00, then do a G90 on the Z
axis only, and resume the program. Oops! I just noticed this is in the
CCED list and might be off topic.

RayHex

----------

> From: Chris Baugher <cbaugher_yahoo@...>
>
>
> Hi,
> I finally got my micro-mill converted to NC, and now I'm moving on to the
> programming part. It looks like the general strategy is to do a roughing
> pass and then a finish pass with a different tool. So my question is,

how

> do you keep the Z axis alignment when switching to a different length
> cutter? I know about offsets in the program, but what about on the
> machine? My machine has a MT2 spindle and I'm using collets to hold the
> cutters. Do I need to make stop collars or something for each cutter?