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Anybody ever used an edge finder?

An electronic edge finder...lol/

Iv'e been doing a lot of picking up edges on the mill lately. And basically using an indicator is a bit of a pain in the arse. The edge has to be picked up within .0001, so a traditional edge finder falls short. Maybe a brand new clean 100$ herman smidt edgefinder with lapped faces might pull it off, but one tenth is asking a lot. So I ordered an electronic edge finder. I got the cheapo enco model, 40 bucks. reason is I want to prove it out before I blow 150$ and it's the only one I found 6" long, all the rest are 3. After subtracting the 1 inch pickup area, and the 1 inch hold, not much left. battery included.

Anyway, it lights up when contacted. has a spring loaded ball, etc... I guess you could spin, but a safer way is pickup, rotate 90, pickup again, difference is tir. Add half that to the ball radius and all should be perfect?

I wonder if the magnet I machine on will suck the spring loaded ball in?

hmmm...... Damn... Ok, i got shutoffs im milling, angles that have to be perfect...and that thing might allow me to inspect in the machine. I could bump a wall and a floor and have a reference. then bump the angle from a position I drew on the computer. poormans probe I guess.

Reply to
vinny
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1 tenth! come on......... is it the space shuttle or a plastic injection mold for nylon? Its a milling machine right? +-.0002 ? if your lucky..... in a climite controled invronment or are you using a CNC jig grinder? or a Roders CNC?

I used one of those Ele E/Fers , didnt care much for it, because like you say it runs out, the ball dosage repeat back in the socket? gotta turn it 180? better off with an indicator at that point.

yep magnets f*ck'up regular E/F'ers. Try running M4 if it does, don't ask me why, but it helps sometimes.

Right SO's are SO's - no gaps - fit, but ABS or Polypro will live just fine with .002 gap, as long its not to close to the gate & the mold is not going in an "under size" press.

Ever use a tooling ball? .2500 shank with a .5000ball - works great if theres lots of different angles & your block is tilted. Direct reading, no if ands or buts. Just need to lay it out in the tube to get the dim's. & put in a .2500 hole somewhere out of the way.

IIMO a starrett E/Fer is the fine by me.

Reply to
cncmillgil

More than once a shop manager held up a shiny new electronic edge finder, it's really only useful if you are working in the dark, and if you are,the only question is: well why are you ? stupid things would get busted in short order, dropped or banged too hard into a part. Oh, and those things are useless if the part is non-conductive, have coolant or a layer of oil on them ( you'll part up the surface of the fluid, not the solid)

Reply to
raamman

1 tenth! come on......... is it the space shuttle or a plastic injection mold for nylon? Its a milling machine right? +-.0002 ? if your lucky..... in a climite controled invronment or are you using a CNC jig grinder? or a Roders CNC?

I used one of those Ele E/Fers , didnt care much for it, because like you say it runs out, the ball dosage repeat back in the socket? gotta turn it 180? better off with an indicator at that point.

yep magnets f*ck'up regular E/F'ers. Try running M4 if it does, don't ask me why, but it helps sometimes.

Right SO's are SO's - no gaps - fit, but ABS or Polypro will live just fine with .002 gap, as long its not to close to the gate & the mold is not going in an "under size" press.

Ever use a tooling ball? .2500 shank with a .5000ball - works great if theres lots of different angles & your block is tilted. Direct reading, no if ands or buts. Just need to lay it out in the tube to get the dim's. & put in a .2500 hole somewhere out of the way.

IIMO a starrett E/Fer is the fine by me.

Reply to
Mark Opolo

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