It’s more money, but much more accurate and sturdy. Having tried a clone, I recommend sticking with the original. 3D Tasters (often now called “3D Sensors”, but the original translation from German is so much more fun!) were first made in Germany by a company called Haimer, though you can now buy cheaper clones of them. Note that you have to account for the tip radius when zeroing!Īnother very common, but more modern and slicker method than the above 2 edgefinders, is to use a “3D Taster”. To use an edge finder, you’re simply going to locate an edge corresponding to each axis, X and Y, and zero the machine DRO when you you’ve found the edge. This video from Tormach gives a great example of both one of these mechanical and an electronic edge finder in action: They work by spinning at fairly low rpm (careful!) and when you go just past the edge slightly they “pop” out. Mechanical edge finders have been around a long time. If they suffer from disadvantages it would be that the ones with movable balls to prevent damage are not very repeatable, while the onces that don’t have movable balls are pretty easy to break if you jog too far or too fast and crash one into your part. Here is a typical electrical edge finder:Įlectrical edge finder lights up or beeps when the ball end touches the part and closes the circuit…Įlectrical edge finders like these are extremely easy to use and relatively cheap. They rely on the workpiece to be electrically conductive so a circuit is closed when the edgefinder touches the workpiece. Electrical edge finders light up and/or beep when they come into contact with the workpiece. So, part zero sits in space rather than actually being on the part.Įdge Finders come in many varieties, but we’ll group them into mechanical and electrical categories. Since you’ll be starting (usually) with unmachined material, it’ll be important to leave some allowance for machining in your CAD drawing. You’re typically going to make the corner part zero. To use this method, put your part in the milling vise or fixture. Here are a number of methods to choose from: Method 1: Use an Edge FinderĮdge Finders are by far the most common way to find part zero, so we’ll start there. Understanding the whole arsenal of methods will help you to become more efficient by selecting the best one for each job. The amount of effort involved is not the same for each one, and some are better for special cases while others are more general.
Incidentally, locating Part Zero is often called “Touching Off.”įor more, check out our g-code programming chapter on Part Zero.Įvery CNC machinist needs to be able to do this simple step, and often having more than one way to do it is helpful.
It’s also called “Program Zero” since X0Y0Z0 in the g-code program is the location of Part Zero. Part Zero is the datum corresponding to the 0, 0 coordinate on the CAD drawing that you used for all your CAM work or to generate the g-code for your part program. One of the first things you have to do before you can begin machining a part is to tell the machine where part zero is. I’ve updated it with several new methods.
This article was originally published in 2016 with only 8 ways to locate Part Zero and has been hugely popular ever since. 11 Ways to Locate Part Zero on Your CNC Machine
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