I’m trying to use the Edge Finder I picked up from Carbide3d, but can’t seem to figure out how to make the spindle spin without loading a project, so I can jog the machine to find zero.
Any ideas?
Thanks
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Darren, I have a Starrett edge-finder that I haven’t used for years. I just chuck up a precision 1/8" dowel pin in a collet (on my Tormach mill I have a dedicated toolholder) and touch the X and Y edges of the stock with a piece of cigarette rolling paper for a feeler gauge. Rolling paper is only .001" thick, so I figure when it is just pinched the dowel pin is touching the stock, so offset the zero by .0625". When I load the first tool, I just need to touch in Z. Sometimes I just use the flutes of the first tool itself with the rolling paper, and offset by half the flute diameter.
The only difference to a edge finder is runout. The edge finder will always touch on the “high” side of the runout, the dowel pin will be randomly between “low” and “high” sides of the runout depending on the rotational position of the spindle (obviously, spindle turned off!) But I can repeat at least to .001" in position.
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So… This is a real issue for me. Is there really no way to accurately find an edge? I am just getting into using my Nomad and am already at a standstill.
I need to work off of a precise edge of existing geometry. Just like a real CNC mill would. There seems to be no “real” method to do this. I don’t want to jam a dowel pin against my work piece. I just ordered the edge finder but realized there is no way to turn on the spindle when manually moving the table to find zero points. It seems that Carbide Motion needs to allow users to feed some g-code commands to the machine manually. Or at least let us turn on the spindle and adjust the speed.
Why would you not want this? You could square up stock and manually do some simple operations. It would seem that a little more access and control is needed. Does anyone know of a workaround?
Solution:
From Carbide Motion screen/interface, hit the “m” key. This brings up an MDI screen where you can input g-code commands and get the spindle turning. From there you can return to the jog screen and the spindle will stay on at the RPM you set. Just hit “m” again to go back and M5 to stop.
Thanks to Jorge from support for getting me this answer!
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Hi Sean,
there was a post a bit back that they were using a micorscopic cam placed besides the bit that will allow such presicion you talk about. ?Finding that thread might help out.
yours,
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