Guys I don't own a phlat printer wished I did and maybe some day soon I will. I have really enjoyed the forums and the accepting attitudes over here. I am posting this question/idea over here in the 3 section since it is gantry style machine like I'm currently building. I've seen some people use different methods of zeroing out he z axis. One that caught my eye was the thin conductive plate grounded out to be used like a switch with the end of the tool chucked in he router. Well this got my head spinning with ideas! If you can use the tool to zero it self out like this how hard would it be to use the tool to input the coords of xyz of a conductive object for duplication? First thing that came to mind was an engine cowl. Spray it with a thin coat of conductive paint and then let the machine go around and create the gcode in reverse. Has anyone heard of this being done? Is it even possible? Orion Feel free to move this where ever. I just couldn't find good place to post such a topic/question.
They have electronic probes that work on the same principle, in fact there is a video on youtube that shows how to make one
Hello Orion They are called touch probes and used for exactly what you say, reverse engineering a part as well as accurately measuring a part. There is really not that much to it and you can see a DIY one here. http://hackaday.com/2011/06/09/diy-cnc-touch-probe/ As cool as these are most of them have been replaced by laser scanners systems now and there are even some DIY versions of these as well. This one here (David scanner) seems popular. http://www.david-laserscanner.com/ Thanks for posting Mark and Trish
you mentioned conductive zeroing... I was thinking you meant using the limit switches to turn the axis off once it reaches a certain spot by completing a circuit with the tool. I thought about doing this for my Z axis. Make a small puck out of shim stock, to zero the Z axis anywhere along the Y that I want by setting the shim puck on the foam/wood, and bringing down the Z until the tool touches thus completing the circuit, thus tripping the limit switch thus stopping the Z axis. I find it too easy to turn off the steppers, and hand crank down the z axis.
I'll go hide back in my hole and wait for some more of my parts to arrive.... And google before I let my keyboard spin on my ideas again... Should have known some one already has done it bigger, better and moved on. Lol
