3D Touch Probe / Edge Finder - A Low Cost Probe?

Hi all, the 3D probe shown in the attached photo is being sold on the web by several vendors, ranging from AliExpress through eBay to CNC system sellers. It looks quite nice, having only a 6mm shank and being quite short so good for machines with limited daylight.

Does anyone have any experience with these they could share please?

Uwe ("suntravel") over on the Centroid Acorn forum uses one of these (or very similar) for tool offset measurement on his lathe. On that basis I just bought one myself although I have no experience of using it yet. Looks quite nicely made and Uwe reckons it's pretty accurate. He knows what he's doing, so it sounds like a good recommendation.


This is the one we got https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...58861802sWYBON

Thanks Muzzer, that's useful!

There is a guy here on the forum @XYZ_Spec also using a similar probe, he seems to like it quite allot:



I was thinking about getting one too, from what I can tell version 6 is the newest one, 3D Touch Probe Edge Finder

It cost me the normal price of £60 +vat ie £72. However, I see there is a special 11-11 sale on today which seems to discount the price to £54. That is better than a kick in the teeth, although I wish I hadn't looked, as it will cause me some loss of sleep, being a Scottish blooded Yorkshireman and all.

EDIT: Scotsman's nightmare worsens - it's actually available for £45.60 delivered. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...001615837864.0

I'm sorry but I got a bit carried away this evening and ended up modelling the thing In Fusion. I'm going to integrate it into a toolsetter for the latest CNC lathe, so this is the first part to create. I've stuck it on Grabcad FWIW:
https://grabcad.com/library/diyo-3d-probe-v6-1

I just bit the bullet at £55 all-in.
Just hope it works.

Originally Posted by JohnHaine

Hi all, the 3D probe shown in the attached photo is being sold on the web by several vendors, ranging from AliExpress through eBay to CNC system sellers. It looks quite nice, having only a 6mm shank and being quite short so good for machines with limited daylight.

Does anyone have any experience with these they could share please?

I am using this one:



It comes with several tips, even long ones.

Originally Posted by Muzzer

I'm sorry but I got a bit carried away this evening and ended up modelling the thing In Fusion. I'm going to integrate it into a toolsetter for the latest CNC lathe, so this is the first part to create. I've stuck it on Grabcad FWIW:
https://grabcad.com/library/diyo-3d-probe-v6-1

Nice, when mine gets here I was going to do a tear down/review of it, I had a similar idea of mounting it to the machine on an arm like the Datron's have, so you can leave it on the machine etc, for completeness I could take some dimensions of the internal parts for you to add to the model if you like?

It's possible I could model the internals but I'm not convinced it would be valuable as I don't plan to substitute any internal parts. My main interest is mounting it on my machine on an arm fitted to the tailstock.

Note that there's a pretty good exploded assembly drawing on the various websites.