Hello, I was wondering if anyone has any tips on setting tool heights for ball mills and spot drills on a dmu50. Every time I set them with the laser they are not right. I know I'm doing something wrong, and it's probably something easy. Any help would be much appreciated , thanks.
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spot drill and ball mill height issues on DMU50
- Thread starter bobjmar
- Start date
- Replies 7
- Views 2,497
DMF_TomB
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2008
- Location
- Rochester, NY, USA
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spot drill often has a flat on the tip that needs to be compensated for. if you know how much like add +.007 to length comp each time that helps.
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some people just at program with tool comp +.010 (more than normal)
measure spot hole size and see roughly how much big or small it is and then adjust length comp again to be closer
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if i use a optical tool setter i use corner where diameter is full size and comp 0.5 x diameter for 90 degree spot drill
bryan_machine
Diamond
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2006
- Location
- Near Seattle
Is this the blum laser? Which controller?
On my DMU60/Heidenhain/Blum the following things have mattered in the past.
1. Calibrate the laser tool setter with the calibration artifact (special tool) which you hopefully have. If the machine "settles", or just with the passage of time, the length calibration can change. (Or maybe it's a thermal issue? Seems funny that a 3 footed machine would "settle" - but I found the calibration changed and got better results after recalibration.)
2. With drills, mine sometimes won't pick up the length at all - a fair amount of the time I can solve this by cleaning the tip. (I've not had this problem with ball mills) Silly putty can be helpful to clean the tips - this may be part of your problem with spot drills as well.
3. Is your ball endmill problem only length? I find that my programs don't run well unless I measure (rather than use nominal value) for the diameter of the ball endmill. (example - with a ball endmill, even if the length is right if diameter is 0.498 rather than 0.500 seems to cause a lot of problems.)
On my DMU60/Heidenhain/Blum the following things have mattered in the past.
1. Calibrate the laser tool setter with the calibration artifact (special tool) which you hopefully have. If the machine "settles", or just with the passage of time, the length calibration can change. (Or maybe it's a thermal issue? Seems funny that a 3 footed machine would "settle" - but I found the calibration changed and got better results after recalibration.)
2. With drills, mine sometimes won't pick up the length at all - a fair amount of the time I can solve this by cleaning the tip. (I've not had this problem with ball mills) Silly putty can be helpful to clean the tips - this may be part of your problem with spot drills as well.
3. Is your ball endmill problem only length? I find that my programs don't run well unless I measure (rather than use nominal value) for the diameter of the ball endmill. (example - with a ball endmill, even if the length is right if diameter is 0.498 rather than 0.500 seems to cause a lot of problems.)
jerryzak
Aluminum
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2007
- Location
- Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Check if you are checking the tool in the center. I had a problem once when someone changed the setting to 0.05 and my center drill was always actually longer than what the laser said because it was checking it on the angle, not flat. Same thing will happen wit ballnose.
Jerry
Jerry
DMF_TomB
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2008
- Location
- Rochester, NY, USA
.
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got to check any tool setter often in my experience
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i once turned wrong knob (many years ago) that was behind me and tool holder fell on tool setter. ouch, anything that heavy hitting it and it of course will need checking of calibration
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i use a optical tool setter and it works poorly on big spot drills. i usually measure end of full diameter say 0.500" and calculate tip height 0.5x 0.500 = .250 above end of full diameter. quite normal for spot drill tip to be off quite a bit with bigger sizes. you can see on optical scope with lines how tip is not same 90 degree angle but is flattened a bit at the tip. also optical tool setter plainly shows dust and stuff that needs wiping off. with laser that would be harder to detect unless you got a big magnifying glass handy
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many tools have runout, not unusual to have over .010" runout on longer tools. long drill bits can have 0.1" runout at tip
Thanks, I'll be setting a job up Tuesday in the DMU50. I'll try to pinpoint the issue then. This is my first 5 axis, as well as my first laser tool height setter, so it's been fun to learn both. The Siemens control was also a learning experience unto itself. But I'm getting used to it. Again thank you for the tips.