hello I need some help narrowing my search of dial indicators and holders that will work for my pro 5 machine. there are so many to choose from. I need this one to be a single so it can help me establish a flat surface to tram from. i have a duel indicator set up ordered and on they way. any help wound be much appreciated thank you.
Did you already purchase:
or
as announced at:
esp. see:
which references:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09W2R3SCD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
For my part, I’ve just been using an 8mm collet (but I’ve been probing holes relative to the spindle bore EDIT: using a dial test indicator).
No I have not gotten those parts yet. I was going to get them but decided to wait but now I think I will get them based on the need to mount an indicator. I want to thank you for your help. The number of choices out there are quite staggering and hard to find the right one.
the dial indicator that i would like to use is like this one. Google Search and I wonder if anyone knows how or what mount would work for my pro 5 machine?
My understanding is that this is one of those things where there is a de facto standard, so you would:
- purchase the steel “Test Indicator Mount for Shapeoko 5 Pro”
- purchase a dial indicator and a base which has an arm
Then, when you wished to check the machine motion in a fashion suitable to the dial indicator which you have purchased you would
- unscrew the arm from the base
- screw the arm into the mount
- adjust/position the mount so that it would then be possible to make the desired measurement, then offset it it along that axis to allow attaching the dial indicator to the mount
- carefully move the machine so as to make the desired measurement
- remove the dial indicator and arm and stow them after use
However, I am not a “real” machinist and I’m still kind of flabbergasted that my father had a pair of Mitutoyo calipers and a Brown and Sharpe micrometer among his tools… hopefully, someone will correct anything in the above which is not correct, or confirm that it is the case.
I will note that usually, a Dial Test indicator (the sort w/ a lever arm) is more useful when mounting to a CNC, and further note that once one starts down this rabbit hole, one finds a need/use for an assortment of such devices which have varying precision/accuracy.
Lastly, many folks use their machines w/o such devices and achieve quite good results — put this off until you have a “real” need?
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ah well i do have a need now for it and I am trying to go off of mark Lindsay cnc machine tramming video when he first set up his avid cnc machine. He uses the what I would say is a plunger type rather then a lever type indicator to establish a flat surface using a surfacing plate so he could then use the duel indicator setup to tram his machine.
Perhaps a video will help?
Here’s one which I seem to recall covered the basics well:
but it’s in the context of a lathe — perhaps someone else can suggest one in the context of a CNC router?
that was very interesting and had some useful information for me. I still am a bit unsure about what mount to get that would work for what i want to do. I think I kind of get what you mean now. I should get the mounting bracket / plate for the machine. then get an indicator mounting arm that fits both the plate and the indicator that i want to use. Then use the arm to mount the indicator to the machine so i can make the measurements. is this correct ?
Yes, that’s my understanding of how these things are mounted/used — the big thing is, dial indicators only work along their axis (vertical when looking at the dial), while dial test indicators may be used for orientations suited to their lever arm.
this has been very educational. thank you for all your help and advice. I very much liked the video and got a lot from it. hope you have a nice rest of your day.