DTI clamp and Probe block

Couple of little projects I made a few weeks back - thought I'd share them here.

First up is a DTI holder to make it easier to clock the vice.

Started with a scrap bit of aluminium and marked it out, drilled some holes, and did a trial fit:
Attachment 16991

Seems OK so trimmed it to size:
Attachment 16992

And there we are. Makes clocking the vice a bit easier - I used various clamps and bolts before and it took a while to set up. Now it is ready in moments:
Attachment 16993

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Second little project is a touch probe. This is a piece if PCB board superglued to a block of aluminium. The PCB provides electrical isolation from the machine bed (otherwise the probe would be active all the time). I glued it to the block to give it some weight to hold it in place, and the PCB was not super flat.
I've already glued the board to the block, and sized the block around the perimeter prior to this photo.

Here is the block depth being skimmed to as close to 10mm as possible. Actual dimension is not critical as long as it is flat but 10mm is easy to remember!
Attachment 16994

Then I soldered on a cable, and used a sleeve to finish it off. The other cable had a crocodile clip added to clip to the spindle mount to make the circuit when probing.

Here is it in use to set the Z height from the surface. I use mach3 screenset 2010 and tell the software that the block is 10mm thick. Then in the probing function hit one button and it does the probing and sets it all automatically.

Attachment 16995

I've also used in to set the X and Y zero on the edges of parts but it can be tricky to hold it in position whilst probing. Sometimes it will sit nicely on the vice jaw.
I'm sure many of you have your own versions - let's see them !

> Hi Lee, if you manage to catch this post would you be able to put it on the end of this 'inspiration' one? Only occurred to me after I'd posted that it would be better there. No worries if not:
http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/9273-...small+projects