tracking a ball for 5 axis calibration

[mkd]

we are looking at rebuilding our trunnion. the boss wants some proof of before and after.

so i am planning to setup a program to track a ball mounted on trunnion for a before and after.

 

Back in the day, when i worked in a real machine shop, we had a custom made spindle "probe". it consisted of a spherical tipped plunger that would drive a small travel indicator. also there was a locking mechanism for setting the zeroed-length on the machine. the design that was floating around So Cal premiere aerospace shops also had provisions for off the shelf bushings linear bearing(s) to guide the spherical tip's shaft.

 

does anyone have that print/ design or is there a stocking manufacture out there now.

TIA

[mkd]

this is not too far from what i'm looking for

[Jeremy Herron@DBS Solutions™]

What kind of Machine? Does it have a probe? I have several routines that will do what you want.

[GoetzInd]

Plus 1 to the probe if you have one on there. Renishaw has actually developed specialized software for this very purpose for use with their probes. Nice to have however not absolutely necessary.

 

Mike

[mkd]

ready hysterical laughter:

Fadal 6030 with their trunnion.

no probing option, thus the desire to do it on the cheap.

watching indicator movement would be more pleasing to the eye than reading macro variable data, etc.

 

i was unaware of the renishaw macro routine for this purpose, but am not really surprised.

[Jeremy Herron@DBS Solutions™]

I have a 1" sphere on a mag base, and I put it on the table, put a noga arm in a tool hoder with a .00005 indicator in it positioned so I can spin around the sphere and easily see the face. Find the center of the spehre with it, and then go into Mastercam and do several point toolpaths with A and C at differnt positions, and check the center of the ball with the indicater at each position. Most of the machies I do this on have DFO or WSEC, but I have done it programming of C.O.R. as well.

[GnoGueyJose]

We've got Renishaw's AxiSet Software, but before then, we just used to load up an Interrapid in a long reach ER16 Holder and do just what Jeremy said. We'd do everything in feed moves so we could watch everything.

 

I like the Renishaw stuff better. It makes it easy to check things out, plus, I can get a printout of the error.

[mkd]

functionally, i guess the semi-manual interapid-indicator method you guys are mentioning is pretty similar to what i would achieve except,

my method for driving ball around a ball using a curve-5axis path would give live feedback to anyone (laymen/CEO) watching this custom indicator.

having the program reverse directions will give live feedback of backlash and following error, so it is a more predictive test of actual cutting performance.

 

i guess i will design and build a batch of these. put em up for sale....any takers?

[GnoGueyJose]

functionally, i guess the semi-manual interapid-indicator method you guys are mentioning is pretty similar to what i would achieve except,

my method for driving ball around a ball using a curve-5axis path would give live feedback to anyone (laymen/CEO) watching this custom indicator.

having the program reverse directions will give live feedback of backlash and following error, so it is a more predictive test of actual cutting performance.

 

i guess i will design and build a batch of these. put em up for sale....any takers?

Maybe one out a thousand 5-Axis shops are willing to pay for stuff like this. MAYBE. We would, but we already have AxiSet and the indicator following the ball method for a dynamic test so your stuff would be redundant for us. Besides, we like to do stuff ourselves. We've got a talented energetic staff so they would be ofended if we bought something like this.

[Machineguy]

Fadal B Macro language is a little different then a Fanac. Do you have macros turned on in the fadal?

 

machineguy

[mkd]

 

AxiSet

oh, now i know what ur talking about.

nice.

800 for my probe or 7000 for a probe system. hmmmm. tough choice

[GnoGueyJose]

AxiSet

oh, now i know what ur talking about.

nice.

800 for my probe or 7000 for a probe system. hmmmm. tough choice

Hmmm... probe is already installed and is WAY more powerful. Yeah, you're right. Tough choice.