That $200 probe kit I almost returned saved me on a rush job

I bought this fancy touch probe kit for my Haas VF-2 six months ago and it sat in the box because I figured I could just dial it in the old way. Last week I had a customer drop off a part with 12 different chamfers and I only had 4 hours to program and run it. That probe measured every feature in 20 minutes flat and I made my deadline with 15 minutes to spare. Anyone else get burned by thinking the old methods are always faster?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_chen1d ago

Oh man, "dial it in the old way" - I heard a guy at a trade show last month say the same thing, said probes were just a crutch for lazy programmers. Then he got a job with a part that had like 15 different surfaces and a 4 hour turnaround, same as you. He said it took him almost two hours just to get the first surface set, and he ended up having to stay late to finish. I think that story stuck with me because it shows how easy it is to underestimate these tools until you're in a real crunch.

david7011d ago

Buddy of mine who runs a small shop swore he'd never need a probe. Had to do a rush job on a weird casting with like 8 different hole patterns, spent 3 hours manually touching off each one, still missed the tolerance on three of them. Next week he bought the same kit and has never looked back.