Larger touch plate?

1

This week I needed to plane/surface a large piece of wood (too wide for my planer) and I used my 2 1/2” surfacing bit on the CNC. However, this it too large to fit into the dimensions of the Avid touch plate. My process is to set the top of the stock as Z0, then the CAM op is to remove just .25 mm from that. Rinse and repeat till flat. This minimizes stock loss until it’s all flat. ended up just have to set Z using the paper trick while jogging the z-axis, which is kind of a PIA.

Anybody got a solution for a larger touch plate that could still work with Mach 4 and leave the regular Avid macro intact?

Or any other better approach?

One idea: program it for multiple depths/ passes and put a pause in between step downs, then abort when finished?

2

UTILs menu from the main screen and select “manual tool measure” this will let you measure a tool manually against the spoilboard.

This should have been an option that was presented after you pressed MTC, inserted the tool and typed in the diameter.

3

Mark Lindsay did a demo of how he solved this problem with a second touch plate for larger surfacing bits.

Check it out - exactly what you are talking about:

4

I use this:

For Centroid, I added code to use a specific height gauge. Mach 4 has it built in.

Corbin

5

I think there needs to be a distinction here to avoid confusion:

The “tool height setter” is the fixed plate on all EX controls that measures the length of the tool. When you change a tool it asks you the diameter. If the tool can fit on the plate it will do a touch off. If the tool is too large it will give you the chance to either move the tool around a little bit so you can get it on the plate OR it will allow you to use your spoilboard for measuring the tool instead of the plate.

In most cases for a super large tool like this slab slayer shown in Mark’s video you can just move it in XY a little and touch off one wing and you’re fine.

For the “mobile touch plate” if you have a tool that’s too large the easiest way to set your zero to the top of your work is to just go to “Set Part Zeros” and set it manually but jogging the tool to the top of the work AFTER it’s been touched off to the tool height setter. This is free, and your machine can already do it.

If you want to make your own touch plate like Mark did, you certainly can do it. On EX and Mach controls you’ll need to adjust the thickness just like Mark did in his video.

6

Thanks @BlueLineCNC , I was just coming here to post that video. I think it is the solution for my problem.

Trying to decide if I just use an OTS plate and switch the height value, or just have one machined for me at 1” tall to eliminate potential for errors.

7

I have an older Avid control box, not an EX controller.

8

Yea I thought you did. You mentioned Mach 4, so the new tool height setter didn’t apply. I take my oversized bits to the material surface where they just start to skim it and manually set zero there (at least that’s how I did it when I ran Mach 4 before upgrading to EX).

9

Hey it would be awesome if Avid made a bigger plate for these larger bits that so many use. What do you say Avid! :wink:

1 Like
10

I would say that functionality is already there in Mach and Centroid for free :slight_smile: