I was trying to use an indicating toolsetter to set the reference surface height to calibrate my tool probe. This lets me not worry about squeezing some hard material between the spindle nose and bed.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell PathPilot that it should set the reference height some distance below the current spindle nose height. It’d be nice if there was a little text field next to the button into which I could type a value that it would then subtract to get the reference surface height.
I use a tool setter like that regularly and just calibrate the dial to the reference surface on the gauge itself. Then I can bonk the Probe into one of those surfaces. Have you tried that work flow?
The analog tool setter I use has a detailed work flow in the 1100mx manual. The indicator has a reference surface that can be calibrated to the dial as well.
Why would you want to set the reference surface below whatever surface you are touching? In my mind this would be an easy thing to forget and would lead to a lot of frustration before you remember.
Did I not explain it well above? I’m touching a manual toolsetter. When the toolsetter reads 0, I know I’m exactly 2.0" above the surface it’s sitting on.
I don’t see an explanation for the “why”, no. What benefit do you see from using the reference surface as the bottom of the indicator vs using the position the indicator reads “0” at?
I can’t remember what I was trying to do when I made the post. But I can think of at least two things:
I want to calibrate the length of something that changes: Either an electronic tool setter, or a Haimer 3D sensor probe. I have to check these against a hard surface.
So I want to set the empty spindle 0 height to the height of a hard surface. But I don’t want to drive it into the surface. I can drive it into that mechanical tool setter until it reads “0” and know then that it is exactly 2.0" above the surface. If I could enter that into the machine when setting the reference surface height, I’d be able to save myself additional math in subsequent steps.
I sort of get not wanting to drive the spindle into a hard surface and what you’re looking for would certainly solve that but for as infrequently as this has to be done it hardly seems worth it. I realize you’re only giving an example but if your mechanical tool setter is exactly 2" when it reads zero, use that to set your spindle reference height, then use a 123 block to set your probe or haimer.
FWIW, when I need to do this (broke a tip on my haimer for instance), rather than driving the spindle into a 123 block, I step it down slowly and slide the block underneath, much like using a feeler gauge. When the block no longer slides between the table and spindle, there’s my reference height.
If I’m touching off on a reference surface I use a 123 block, jog slightly below the 123 block’s surface and start to step up until the 123 block can just slide underneath the tool.