Leveling Renishaw OTS (tool setter)

[parkson]

I have had my renishaw OTS for about 2 years now. I leveled it originally w/ a precision ground blank in the spindle and lowered the spindle to the OTS contact surface. I then adjusted the grub screws until the contact surface was parallel with the ground blank.

Thing is when i set my tools they are off max .001 from each other. If i machined something w/ multi tooling you can see a step .001 from 1 tool to the other (on a flat plane) To get around this, after I get a tool length I then have to bring the tools to a ground block and adjust height until they are all even.

Can the OTS achieve better resolution than .001 from tool to tool. Is there a better method for leveling?

-Park

[Matt@RFR]

The way you're supposed to level that pad is by running a .0001" indicator across its' face in Y and adjust it until it's dead flat. Repeat in X.

The pad on my probe isn't flat, so I have to be carefull... It's dished .0013" in the center so ball nose endmills, drills and chamfer tools will end up not matching flat tools.

[parkson]

ok. ran a test indicator across the face. best level I could achieve was .0002 from one side to the other and back and fourth.

My flat endmills seem to match up but the v tools and tiny endmills (.015) are off .0006 so i have to use a machined surface to adjust their height.

Maybe my disc is dished like yours? Is this a common problem for Renishaw?
Is there a way to fix it?

-Park

[wtf ? really ?]

i use 4 mach. with reinshaw probes. they do wear out over time and dish. escpecially when you rotate the tool. The new pads are not to expensive, if .0005 mismatch is an issue.

[parkson]

you mean they wear out (dish) when rotating oversized tools to get lenght?

[Matt@RFR]

No, they won't get dished from use. Think about a rotating tool touching the disc...first of all it's rotating backwards, and second, it would create a step in the disc, not a dished center. I suspect this will take several years of constant use though.

If your disc is dished like mine is, just get another one. Renishaw part number is A-2008-0382. Or, if you're just too damn lazy like me, just offset your small and/or pointy tools 1/8" on the disc so they don't touch the dished part of the disc.

[wtf ? really ?]

i guess i never thought of that ( the whole step thing...duhhh)..... however all of ours have dished out at 1 time. usually takes a yr or so. but we touch a lot of smaller tools just on the center. I know when the service guy comes for PM i have him replace some and they match MUCH BETTER than when i do it myself after a breakage. i too am lazy and just raise the smaller tools up .001 ....hmmmmmmmm and how DO they get dished ????

[Catchme]

another thing to watch for is thermal growth of the spindle. if you touch one tool off when the spindle is cooler, and then touch another off when the spindle is warmer, it will give a bad reading. Also if you touch both off at the same time, but one tool rund at high rpm for long periods of time, it will grow during the thermal expansion process. your best bet is to set them when the spindle is at the temp that that particular tool number operates at.