TIL why my G-code was crashing on the same tool change for weeks

I spent three days last month chasing a tool change crash on our Haas VM-3 at the shop in Cleveland. Kept getting a z-axis alarm every time it swapped to tool 8. Finally noticed the tool holder had a tiny burr on the pull stud that was messing with the retention knob. Filed it down in five minutes and everything ran smooth after that. Ran 200 parts straight without a hiccup that Thursday. Made me wonder how many other little things I've been blaming on bad code when it was just a dirty tool holder. Anyone else spent way too long on something simple like this?

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ninamartin15d ago

Not to nitpick but a burr on the pull stud usually won't cause z-axis alarms by itself. More likely it was messing with how the drawbar seated the tool, which gave the machine a bad tool clamped signal. That would make the controller think the tool was loose or missing, so it'd throw the alarm before it even tried to move. I learned that the hard way on a Mazak after chasing a phantom issue for two shifts.