MuellerNick from Germany has developed an interesting concept. He has transformed a digital caliper into virtually a height gauge, complete with a circular hole at the base. This allows it to be utilized on a flat surface such as a surface plate or on a protruding component like a tool holder.
If I was going to make one of these, the other thing I’d do is make sure the friction clamp feature of the calipers was functional. It’s useful to keep tool stickout at a consistent repeatable length once you’ve encountered conditions that cause chatter. If you have the same stickout, same tool type (same model and manufacturer), same tool holder type (same model and mfg), and the same spindle, chatter conditions are reproducible. This means that once you know where they occur, they can be avoided if you keep all those variables constant. This can be extremely valuable for productivity.
Like what you read on CNCCookbook?
Join 100,000+ CNC'ers! Get our latest blog posts delivered straight to your email inbox once a week for free. Plus, we’ll give you access to some great CNC reference materials including:
Bob is responsible for the development and implementation of the popular G-Wizard CNC Software. Bob is also the founder of CNCCookbook, the largest CNC-related blog on the Internet.
I wonder if there are data ports on some low end Chinese calipers and are there cables to go with them? Higher end stuff from Starrett and Mitutoyo had those ports and cables…
Great idea. I have definitely seen ports on a lot of these import scales. You can buy a height gage all set up with a port from Tormach that works well. I doubt these companies all invented a new protocol–a USB cable that works for one probably works for all.
I wonder if there are data ports on some low end Chinese calipers and are there cables to go with them? Higher end stuff from Starrett and Mitutoyo had those ports and cables…
Great idea. I have definitely seen ports on a lot of these import scales. You can buy a height gage all set up with a port from Tormach that works well. I doubt these companies all invented a new protocol–a USB cable that works for one probably works for all.
Best,
BW