Stupid question about using the %$&!! WIPS probe

V

Volitan

Hot Rolled

Joined

Sep 16, 2006

Location

Long Island, New York

• Jun 4, 2018

• #1

Going by the sparse instructions it came with, as well as instructions I found here: How to Calibrate WIPS - Dozuki

I managed to calibrate the thing and use it and it worked fine, next time I go to use it the tool heights were off by like 5 inches or so.
Theres a long-ish run job on the machine now so I can't try again but it's bugging the crap out of me.

The only thing I can think of is maybe after you calibrate it you have to use the same pocket every time you use the work probe? Is that right?
I ASSumed it stored the probe length in a parameter but could it actually use a tool height value instead??

Thanks

 

B

Booze Daily

Titanium

Joined

Sep 18, 2015

Location

Ohio

• Jun 4, 2018

• #2

Sounds reasonable. I calibrated mine in pocket 25 and always used 25 for probing and have never had that problem.

 

Mike1974

Diamond

Joined

Nov 5, 2014

Location

Tampa area

• Jun 4, 2018

• #3

Volitan said:

Going by the sparse instructions it came with, as well as instructions I found here: How to Calibrate WIPS - Dozuki

I managed to calibrate the thing and use it and it worked fine, next time I go to use it the tool heights were off by like 5 inches or so.
Theres a long-ish run job on the machine now so I can't try again but it's bugging the crap out of me.

The only thing I can think of is maybe after you calibrate it you have to use the same pocket every time you use the work probe? Is that right?
I ASSumed it stored the probe length in a parameter but could it actually use a tool height value instead??

Thanks

Click to expand...

Yes, keep it in the same position (tool pocket/number) and you should be fine. Not sure where to look, but one Haas tech told me the macro stores the pocket info somewhere. You could probably alter this if you needed to, although I have not tried that as I was taught to leave the probe in the machine...

 

F

friesen

Cast Iron

Joined

Jul 13, 2016

• Jun 4, 2018

• #4

It uses the tool length setting. It also stores the tool number in a macro.

 

V

Volitan

Hot Rolled

Joined

Sep 16, 2006

Location

Long Island, New York

• Jun 4, 2018

• #5

OK great, thanks to all. We'll keep it in there and flag as heavy I guess so it doesn't get whipped around.

 

Y

YdnaD

Aluminum

Joined

Jun 8, 2012

Location

Tecumseh MI

• Jun 6, 2018

• #6

It's very easy to accidentally delete the work probe's tool offset since it'll get wiped out if you clear the entire column or the whole offset list. You may want to write the probe's offset length somewhere on the machine, but be prepared for the value to change if you break the tip or if you move the tool presetter.

I thought I had solved that problem by writing a macro program that deletes unused offsets while leaving the value in T25 alone. But then I found out it only works if literally everybody is familiar with running that program. So you still need a quick way to get the number back in its register. Of course it doesn't take long to probe the offset again so that's always available..

 

B

Booze Daily

Titanium

Joined

Sep 18, 2015

Location

Ohio

• Jun 6, 2018

• #7

We do a similar thing. We cleared all the tool offset except the probe and cleared all the work offsets
and saved it as a file called "zero". At each new setup we just load the file "zero" to zero out everything.

 

T

Turbo442

Aluminum

Joined

Sep 3, 2011

Location

North Plains, OR

• Jun 11, 2018

• #8

I was wondering where most people keep there probe? In the first pocket or the last? I keep it in pocket 1 and then tell the machine to load pocket 20 on powerup/restart. (Configured in the setup menu). That way when I am done for the day I hit the powerup/ restart and it loads an empty tool before shutting down. Better than a hot spindle cooling off with a tool in the taper and then popping in the morning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Y

YdnaD

Aluminum

Joined

Jun 8, 2012

Location

Tecumseh MI

• Jun 11, 2018

• #9

It's good to leave the spindle empty overnight. It's usually not a problem under normal conditions, but we've had weird situations where humidity will drastically change overnight and it makes stuff in the shop get rusty almost immediately...tools could get stuck in there under that scenario. It's probably not a huge concern for most people depending on environment, but it can't hurt.

Anyway, I think the spindle probe number is mostly preference. Most people use either the first or last tool number, but ultimately the same result.