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Touch Off Gauge

Richard Tymko

Richard Tymko

Active Member
I have an Edge Technology "Pro Touch Off Gauge"
4" tool length offset.

I am offering it up here for a day before I put it on Kijiji. Asking $200.

I bought it over a year ago thinking it would work well with my Pocket NC. Then I upgraded my Pocket NC and never ended up using it.
It is in NEW condition.
 

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Richard Tymko said:
I have an Edge Technology "Pro Touch Off Gauge"
4" tool length offset.

I am offering it up here for a day before I put it on Kijiji. Asking $200.

I bought it over a year ago thinking it would work well with my Pocket NC. Then I upgraded my Pocket NC and never ended up using it.
It is in NEW condition.
Click to expand...

KBC has this item for 165.00 plus tax (not on sale) and free shipping. You might want to rethink your asking. Just saying.
 
Dusty said:
KBC has this item for 165.00 plus tax (not on sale) and free shipping. You might want to rethink your asking. Just saying.
Click to expand...
Thanks, What is KBC? I just looked on Edge Techs website and they are selling it for $150 US. That is what I was basing it off of.
 
KBC is a pretty big (online) machine tool seller in Canada & USA. Kind of like Travers or MSC in the States
 
KBC & Travers will send you a nice 1" thick catalog for free upon request. I'd guess 70% of content is the same on brand items between them. I find Travers more expensive on average but has a bit more selection. Both have flat rate shipping to your door, no customs issues even if they source from their US division. KBC flat shipping is lower & bit quicker on average. Both have sales flyers & occasional discount promos. Always pays to shop around & compare prices but anyways some more options for your money burning pleasure LOL
 
PeterT said:
Travers will send you a nice 1" thick catalog for free upon request.
Click to expand...
I requested a catalogue from Travers last week and they are not sending catalogs at the moment. Not sure if it’s a permanent thing or not.
 
Oh good to know. Actually KBC mentioned they might go reduced paper mode due to cost, but they have been saying this for a while. Usually the new one comes out ~Q1 if I recall, so guess we'll see. The prices are instantly out of date with fluctuations, that's a given. Theoretically the website has all the same info as the catalog, but I find their website searching clunky at times.
 
I just got one of aliexpress for about 50 CAD with shipping. Good stuff! Mine is electronic. Tested it on the mill and it works great. Repeatable. Accuracy is around 0.01mm around a tenth. On manual mill it is off use for changing tools to do different operations. For example I cut a slot with square end mill and then I want to add dovetails with a 60 deg cutter - if I want to do it somewhat precisely I need to know stick out of my tool A is same as tool B.
 
Tom Kitta said:
I just got one of aliexpress for about 50 CAD with shipping. Good stuff! Mine is electronic. Tested it on the mill and it works great. Repeatable. Accuracy is around 0.01mm around a tenth. On manual mill it is off use for changing tools to do different operations. For example I cut a slot with square end mill and then I want to add dovetails with a 60 deg cutter - if I want to do it somewhat precisely I need to know stick out of my tool A is same as tool B.
Click to expand...

I wondered what they would be used for. I thought it was a CNC thing.
 
YYCHobbyMachinist said:
I wondered what they would be used for. I thought it was a CNC thing.
Click to expand...

Yeah mostly a CNC thing through it has as I pointed out niche manual use. If you have a DRO you also can program tools in - this is of use if you have a lot of tool holders and easy way to change them. So say you have 20 tools in 20 tool holders and you program all of them into DRO then when you change tools the DRO knows the tool stick out is right away.
 
Janger said:
Not R8 John? Please tell us more.
Click to expand...

R8 the tool can move in R8 to ER25 would not be an issue as far as I can think of how it would work. The MNTB40 the tool cannot move in - the end mill holders are weldon shank based & no movement at all. The rest of MNTB40 is collet based, be it ER or something else. There is no 40 taper tooling where endmill is somehow loose in as 40 taper stuff is not a collet itself.

R8 is not a tool holder R8 is a collet, same as other collet based spindles such as ER25 or DA100. Other collets that are popular are MT3 / MT2 based spindles - here the straight holder MT3 to some endmill has same issue as R8 to some endmill but MT3-ER32 holder is safe.
 
Sorry tom, but an MT3 has a similar problem to R8 - please let me explain.

You put a 1/2" end mill in either R8 or MT3, and it slips until it has been full collapsed in the spindle, making height setting nullified - but - neither r8 or mt3 will register at the precisely the same spot.

If you have an r8 or mt3 - to - er32 collet adapter, and then clamp that 1/2" end mill int the ER collet, you still cannot guarantee its Z height. that 's because while clamping in an r8 spindel it can be out .001 or .0015 by clamping it harder or softer. In mt3, the problem is even worse: you can easily overtighten an mt3 and shorten your tool by as much as .004. I have had this demonstrated to me, because I didn't believe it.

-- the problem is draw bar pressure. the CATxx and similar tool holders always register to exactly the same place and that is why CNC machines use that style or the Sandvik trilobe tool holders. there are now even more sophisticated tool holding systems for CNC but now I digress.
 
I guess I should have added that if you have automatic draw bar (air power) the pressure you put on the R8 / MT3 should be similar every time so your error should not exceed 0.001 or so. You are right that without auto draw bar just hand pressure all "friction" systems can be drawn deeper or shallower every time vs. non friction systems such as holders.
 
On a manual mill-CNC-conversion like mine (R8), I envision using a tool-height gauge on every tool change to set the offset (after it is in the mill and tightened) -- regardless if it is an R8 tool-holder (weldon) or a collet. I agree that there will be lots of variance in 'how' you tighten.

I have the 'edge' one already, and have an electronic one coming from AlliExpress. The goal would be to build a pause into the program, and have it pickup and set the offsets automatically once you instruct it to.
 
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