I used to program all my Haas offsets by hand but now I let the probe do it, wondering if I lost any feel for the machine

For 12 years I manually touched off every tool and set work offsets with an edge finder, but after I got a Renishaw probe on the new VF-4 back in March I let it run everything, and I'm curious if anyone else feels like they've gotten a little disconnected from the machine or if the speed gain is worth it?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara_jenkins662d ago

Read somewhere that probes are great but you lose the muscle memory.

smith.elliot2d ago

Are you sure it's muscle memory you lost, or just the frustration of doing it by hand? I've been running CNC machines since the early 2000s, and I've got to say, the probe made me a better machinist, not a worse one. Time I used to spend on setup is now spent watching the cut, checking the finish, and catching chatter before it ruins a part. I can still feel the drawbar tension and listen to the spindle load without a second thought. The probe just handles the boring stuff, the measurements that your fingers can't really tell you anyway. It frees you up to focus on the actual cutting, which is where the real skill lives.