OTS Renishaw Tool setter help

[mgb1974]

I have set up my OTS Renishaw tool setter in my Haas VF2. We use a chuck system in our mills and program everything off of the top of it. I was wondering how do you change the tool setter so that it adds the height of the chuck instead of measuring from the table top??

[Donkey Hotey]

It doesn't matter where your presetter is. It's not measuring from the table. It's measuring from the spindle. It just happens to be mounted to the table.

Back when the probing was set up, one of the steps was putting a tool of known length in the spindle, then parking that tool over the presetter. The machine figured out how far it had to travel to get that tool to touch the presetter. If you told it that tool was 6", it said, "oh, ok, this is 6 inches." From that moment on, all other tools were measured from that length.

The next step was to establish the probe length against that same presetter. Once that was established, all of your future work offsets would know where the tools were.

See this thread for more:
http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread...353#post416353

The bottom line is that as long as you are setting your work offsets with the probe, the tool presetter could be bolted to the ground and it wouldn't make any difference.

I hope that helps.

[mgb1974]

Thanks Greg! I was wondering how that exactly worked. I looked through the programs and didnt see anything that related a distance that measured to the table.

Still not 100% clear how this works with programs? How does the machine know where the tool location is at relative to the fixture if everything is programmed from the bottom of the fixture and the fixture is offset say 1" from the table? We dont have the probe setup yet but we are using a 3R delphin chuck system so the work cordinates do not change. So is it just relative to the work cordinates in z?

PS. I used that link to calibrate it Saturday. Worked Great!!!

[Donkey Hotey]

How are you guys setting Z values right now? In tool offset or work offset? If you're using the probe, it should have values in both.

Maybe I missed something: you guys do or do not have the probe to go with the presetter?

Without a probing system, I guess you don't use Z work offsets. You just touch your tools off of the work surface and whatever length gets loaded in Z is your length. I've honestly never used this method because it's my first mill and I used probing since day one.

With a probe, you have both work and tool offsets in Z. You're supposed to use the work offset probing templates to set your Z. I'm not familiar with your fixturing but since you said 'chuck' I'll assume we're talking round parts.

There is a work offset template where you drop the probe into a bore, tell the template how big the bore is (approximate) and it will set the XY work offset to be dead-center. There's another that does the same thing except instead of a bore, it probes the outside of a round solid (boss).

Then you can use the Work Offset Z template and touch off of whatever surface you want for Z-zero.

You'll end up with Z values in the Work offsets as well as Tool offsets. It sums them all up whenever you call your work offset (G54) in the program.

A noob like me had to help a couple of experienced machinists with this same thing. They'd done it manually for so long that they were trying to 'just use the probe' or 'just use the presetter'.

They were running into the same work offset difficulties until they understood that the probe becomes the master tool for setting work offsets. If they don't set the work offset with that probe, all of the other tools will be off.

One guy is a total convert. He won't setup jobs the 'old way' anymore. The other guy uses it a bit less but he's coming around.

[mgb1974]

We have Z values set in a G54 Work Offset. We used to touch our tools off of that surface(3R CHUCK). Now that we have the Toolsetter reinstalled we want to use that.

The 3R chuck is just used to put our fixtures in and not have to tram anything in and for quick change over.

We have the probe but havent used it yet. Still working on it, wanted to get the tool setter in first and then move on to the probe.

So I think if I understand it right, since our G54 work offset is set then it would make the tools set using the tool setter, it will just offset the z value.

The tool lengths then will be set by the tool setter.

Kinda confusing, might have to get the probe out sooner then I thought.

[Donkey Hotey]

Ahhh...that's what I thought. No, you need to use the probe. The probe is your master length. All other tools are relative to that.

Once the probe knows where the presetter is, you use the probe to set the work offsets. There is no other 'easy' way to use them individually.

If it takes you 30 minutes to set up the whole probing / presetter setup, you're doing something wrong. Once it's set, life is easy. Anywhere that probe can reach becomes your work offset.

Again, check this thread:
http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread...353#post416353

[HelicopterJohn]

Greg is absolutely correct!

"If it takes you 30 minutes to set up the whole probing / presetter setup, you're doing something wrong. Once it's set, life is easy. Anywhere that probe can reach becomes your work offset."

The HAAS Tech setup my probing system during the installation of my machine.

I am a newbie and the Renishaw Wireless Probing system I purchased with my new TM-1P is absolutely GREAT! It makes setups a breeze. I made a little reference table to help me remember how to use the Renishaw Probe. I have included a copy for you to look at. Please use at your own risk. It has really helped me out.

John