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  #1  
Old Sat 16 February 2008, 21:47
JoeyGH
Just call me: Joey
 
Linesville
United States of America
CNC Router Tool Height Indicators For Sale



Hello all. I'm a tool maker and like many of you have built my own router. Although I haven't built a Mech Mate I built one none the less. I recently thought up a simple but very effective Router Tool Height Setter. This was custom designed and built by me.

It is made from 6061 aluminum and S-7. The S-7 was pressed into the top slide piece to increase useful tool life. The purpose of this device is to elimate the need to touch off your tools on your cnc router. All you have to do is wire the switch included inside this device to a limit switch on your router.

Then configure Mach 3 or whichever software you use to use it as a tool height setter. This device measures up to be approx. 2''x2''x2 1/4". Mounting it to your router's table is made easy by pulling off the top slide plate and putting screws of your choice through the two counterbore holes.

My current price is $34.99 plus shipping.

You can visit my ebay auction here: http://cgi.ebay.com/CNC-Router-Tool-...QQcmdZViewItem One of my buyers pointed me in the direction of this site as to possible interested buyers.

Contact Me
Ebay Username: Toolmaker1988
Email: JoeyGH@leantoolllc.com
PM on here. Thanks
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  #2  
Old Sun 17 February 2008, 01:24
JoeyGH
Just call me: Joey
 
Linesville
United States of America
Price Change

I've decided to lower the price down to $29.99 plus shipping in the attempt to sell them more quickly. Thanks
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  #3  
Old Sun 17 February 2008, 11:02
revved_up
Just call me: Craig
 
Hartland, MI
United States of America
I bought one of these from Joey on ebail and pointed him here. Even though Im not anywhere near ready for something like this at this stage I picked it up for the day I can ask for a serial number. Its really nicely made and cheaper than what I would have made it myself. Anyhow my 2 cents.
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  #4  
Old Mon 18 February 2008, 19:15
Art
Just call me: Art #2
 
Lancaster,Texas
United States of America
Z high set

Anyone have a write up on details on setting up and using tool height and manual tool change in Mach3? The doucmation is weak and and I suspect that it is going to take a lot of hours to figure it out.
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  #5  
Old Mon 18 February 2008, 19:48
cobra427mnsi
Just call me: Paul
 
Leamington, Ontario
Canada
I may be showing my ignorance here, but, I will ask anyway. When and how would one use such a device?
It looks nice and seems to be real value for the money

Paul
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  #6  
Old Tue 19 February 2008, 03:36
JoeyGH
Just call me: Joey
 
Linesville
United States of America
Clearification

To clear up any confusion. You mount it to the table as it's sitting in the picture at the top. The spiral tracks running up the posts(which by the way are dowels pins) are springs. They suspend the top plate while the dowel pins make everything travel in a linear fashion. To use this device all you would do is mount it to your cnc router's table. Then attach the switch that's inside this device to one of your limit switches that are already on your machine. Then you configure Mach 3 or which ever cnc controller you are using to use it as a presetter. For example If I was working a on a piece of mdf(pressed board) and it was .500 or 1/2 inch thick I would program it to cut at .490 inch in my program(which would cut .010 inches into my part). Then I would make my router touch off on this presetter with a known distance from the table up. We'll say for example the switch activates at 1.792 from the table up. So when my tool activates the switch my tool would be exactly 1.792 inchs above the table. At this point the router now know's the Z offset for that tool and can go ahead and move to the start of the program and drop to the .490 above the table at this point the table would be considered a Z of 0.000 inches. Sounds alot more complicated than it really is, but it illiminates the need to touch off your tool manually. Hence saving you time and possibly money in a commericial environment. It's usefulness would greatly increase if you have a tool changer. Also if you already touched off with a brand new tool and made a cut and then ran some more pieces you could have it touch off each time and make sure your tool isn't breaking down. If so you could have it "throw an alarm" and you could change the tool without incident. Well any other ?'s are welcome. Hope all this helped thanks. As I'm seeing from the posts I"m going to have to videotize how to set one of these up to kinda clear all the confusion. Possibly this weekend would be the earliest I could do something like that as I work 12 hours days during the week. Well thanks for all the views and interest.

Joey
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  #7  
Old Wed 20 February 2008, 05:59
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
Send a message via Yahoo to Robert M Send a message via Skype™ to Robert M
Don’t worry Paul, ignorance can be a sign of curiosity witch is a sign of intelligence. Don’t ignore that !!

One thing comes to my mind as one who as yet set up my MM (or any other CNC for that mater) YET. How do one with out this type of gizmo set up the Z high when he need to change tooling ( cutter) for a given task that is already on the table ??
Excuse my lack of knowledge on this tool changing story as I have yet any experience with this situation, but I too am intrigue by this device and how do one manage tool changing with out one ??
I aiming to install an ATC on my MM, not certain of this yet, still need to gather more info !
Amicalement, Robert
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  #8  
Old Wed 20 February 2008, 06:07
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
To set the z-height without any electronic assistance:

Lay a sheet of thin paper under the cutter, creep the axis down until the cutter just grips the paper (when you can't move the paper), zero the reading on the Mach screen. Do not switch the router/spindle on!
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  #9  
Old Wed 20 February 2008, 06:23
cobra427mnsi
Just call me: Paul
 
Leamington, Ontario
Canada
Thanks, Gerald. I had a small cnc router at school and that is the way that I set cutter height to zero.

Paul
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  #10  
Old Wed 20 February 2008, 14:13
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
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Aaa...now I see...sayzzz the blind man
Merci Gerald.
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  #11  
Old Thu 06 March 2008, 06:27
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
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As anyone purchased one of Joey’s or for that mater, from another source ?
I doubt it’s usage, validity or need ?!!
Excuse my lack of knowledge & skepticism on this tool, trying to find out more & educate my self a little at the time !!
Thanks, Robert
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  #12  
Old Thu 06 March 2008, 07:42
revved_up
Just call me: Craig
 
Hartland, MI
United States of America
I purchased one of the first ones he offered on Ebay before he set his minimum buy price and got it for barely over the cost of shipping but I still havent built my machine yet and just bought it just incase. Side note have now recieved almost all materials for the control box and will start a personal thread soon.
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