"Ignoramus8984" wrote in message
...
On 2010-07-27, Mike Henry wrote:
I'm no expert, but from what I've read the Renishaw probe is designed to
minimize the effects of friction. It's probably rated at something like
+/-0.0002" whereas teh Wildhorse model is +/- 0.0005" at best and
probably
more like +/-0.001" in actual practice. Aligning the Wildhorse was a
PITA
to me, but you might be more patient or good at sensitive work. I'd
guess
that the Renishaw will hold calibration better/longer than the Wildhorse
too. It should be fine for hobby purposes.

Very nice.

Aside from using it to generate 3D point clouds of objects, they can also
be
used to find centers of bores and edges of flat stock, either manually or
with a macro. There is also a routine available for Mach3 that figures
out
the angular error of the vise jaw surface to the X axis and rotates the
work
CS to align it to the vise. Pretty fancy way to eliminate vise alignment
errors.

I think that I should get that probe, looks very promising.

There are some other garage shop probe brands out there including a nice
one
from Europe that runs around $300.

Don't forget the 3D sensors either - I use one of those for my manual
edge
finding and it is really nice to have. Those run around $350 new.


How is that difference from the wildhorse probe?

i

Google Haimer 3D Taster (German for sensor, I think). It's basically a dial
test indicator that can detect deviations along any of the 3 axes. Good to
+/- 0.0004", AIR. There is no electronic output, so it's strictly manual.