I have had this on the drawing board for 3 years now, I even used my tester in the first dual demo vid. I am not really sure if anyone would want one.
I am thinking a probe, spade female plug, and a clamp for the endmill? I am sure everyone will want to make their own lengths and stuff.
Any idea what to put on the back, I just have some logos now. I thought about some common Gcode commands but you know me and my obsession with the logo!
Small, 3.3" long, 0.5mm thick, stainless, you can bend it or leave it at the neck or leave it flat.
I like it. It would help functionally if it tends to sit flat even when you’re not holding it, so maybe the artwork can go around the perimeter or a shorter arm or a second arm on the opposite side.
Maybe also a ruler would be handy.
How does the clamp for the endmill work? I have a bit of trouble locating the center of a single flute cutter to line up precisely with a spot on my workpiece. Is that what it’s for? I haven’t needed that much precision so far, but it would be nice to have something for that.
I thought about that. Adding a slot in the “neck”, but 0.5mm Stainless is not that rigid, 2" wide is pretty easy to make it sit flat.
I have something similar to this coming, Amazon.com. But no, Not an edge finder, just Z=0.5. I intended on making is a set of two, one with bendable edges for a corner finder but then I would have to write instructions for that and I have never needed one so I abandoned it.
And yeah an edge finder is quite a different thing. It might sound simple mechanically but the whole solution is easily 10x the scope / hassle of a touch plate.
Shooting for under $5, mostly so I stop using foil tape.
I thought about putting a 30mm slot or something to us to verify movement, but in the end how these are made do not end up in that kind of precision (acid bath).
If you haven’t seen these yet, as soon as I got them I knew this had to happen. I love the way these look. Talked to them yesterday and they said “no problem” awesome! I have the spades and ordered the clips. I will order the probes tomorrow (I hope).
Hopefully these little probes, bring a touch of class to the machining side. I hate to see those little import puck things. I think/hope these are more accurate, practical, no more expensive, smaller, and not any more costly.
I frequently use the pucks. I like them well enough. They’re cheap, convenient and do the job. You can’t trust their tolerances, which isn’t a big deal because its not like you swap them often. I just note the exact height of the puck on each machine and keep it handy. They have enough heft that they sit flat hands free or I can flip them upside down to make contact with aluminum and zero straight to the stock.
The big thing I see yours having over them is height. The pucks are tall enough that they can be unusable on material that is already at the limits of your Z. This design wouldn’t have that issue.
No heft at all so you will need to mind the placement and make sure it is flat.
I have everything ordered at this point just not sure what to do about the wires. I think I will break down the individual stepper wires I have and throw those in for now.
