touching off endmills with presetter on a lathe

[Mike@Dive Lab]

We have a new lathe with a presetter it's a HAAS ST20Y. This is the first lathe presetter I've used. When touching off endmills with a radial live tool what's the best way to do this. For example a mill probe actually spins the endmill in reverse to get the diameter. Without the tool spinning, if the tool is rotated slightly you may be off a bit.

 

could I try and mount an indicator on the presetter and rotate the tool to find the main diameter of the endmill and then bump off?

Would you cheat in the control and say the endmill is a little bigger and then adjust or even use a test part and mill a pocket

 

what do you guys do?

 

Thanks

[YoDoug®]

I usually calibrate the touchsetter so that Z0 is the center of radial live tools. That way you just put 0 in your offset and adjust as necessary.

[Bryan Johnson]

Sounds like we use same method as Doug.

X value for ALL radial rotating tools is same, and we only touch off for Z.

As I recall, on Haas this value is saved in a setting, and can be entered into offset page with 1 button.

Same thing for static drills.