Hi all,
I’ve been doing some v-carving lately on some large (40" x 40") plywood. The issue I’m running into is the material height inconsistency. I’m likely going to start auto-probing the material and generating a heightmap in order to get better carves. To achieve this I need to buy / built a push button style probe for my machine.
Does anyone know of a push button probe that can be inserted into a 1/4" collet?
If I can’t find one online, I’ll likely build my own. I’m also thinking to build a lidar based version so I can do a continuous scan of the material (more data points, less time).
I’m planning to use GitHub - martin2250/OpenCNCPilot: autolevelling gcode-sender for grbl for the heightmap generation and gcode modification.
Cheers,
Ethan
1 Like
I cannot speak to the quality of this product, but a quick search turned this one up on eBay …
CNC 3AXIS DIGITIZING TOUCH PROBE 3/8 SHANK HIGH PRECISION LED
It comes standard with a 3/8" shank, but it does say that the buyer can request a 1/4" shank.
Or… this one…
Digitizing Touch Probe CNC 3D digitizer 1/4" Fixed shank Router mach3 linuxcnc
You could always go the cheap route and use something like this; you would just need to make something for it to attach to that could be inserted into the spindle.
1 Set 3D Probe Auto Bed Leveling Sensor With Screw 15mA For Anet A8
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Brandon Parker
Hmm… I might have to save up my pennies!
Right now i’ve gone the dirt-cheap diy route and took a bolt and a momentary push button and glued the two together. Sure, it’s not super accurate, but seems to do well enough.
I was able to generate a height map of my spoil board last night:
So I’m going to give it a try with a piece of plywood tonight and see if i can get a consistent carve depth across the whole piece.
Cheers,
Ethan
2 Likes
You’ve got to call your spoil board Mr Burns.
Being able to adjust depth for uneven material (not just spoil board variance) will be very helpful.
Could even then be used for carving on a deliberately curved surface.
