To get the highest possible performance out of your Milltronics machine, it’s absolutely vital that it knows exactly where your part is. Setting your part zero — or work coordinates — with an edge finder isn’t difficult, but it’s important to follow the proper steps in the process. In this blog entry, we’ll walk you through the process on the INSPIRE+ control.

If you prefer videos to checklists, watch the tutorial above. 

STEP 1: Remove the tool currently in your machine’s spindle. To do this, grip the tool with one hand and press the tool release button on the spindle. Make sure you have a good grip on the tool, as it will release as soon as the button is pressed, and you don’t want to damage the tool or workpiece by dropping the former onto the latter.

STEP 2: Press and hold the tool release button, insert the tool holder with your edge finder into the spindle and release the button. To ensure a proper mating between the holder and spindle, the deeper cutout on your holder needs to be aligned with the tapered key on the spindle.

STEP 3: Close the machine’s door. Note that you will not be able to run the spindle unless the door is fully closed.

STEP 4: On your control, bring up the command window by selecting MDI with a push of the F5 button.

STEP 5: Choose M code and select M3 to tell the machine that the spindle will be spinning in a clockwise direction.

STEP 6: Press the S button and then enter the spindle speed with the number pad. Use the speed recommended by the manufacturer of your edge finder.

STEP 7: Press the F5 button to run, then press the green, blinking Cycle Start button to start your spindle.

STEP 8: Press the Escape button to exit the MDI window.

STEP 9: Use your handwheel or remote handwheel to position the edge finder so that it is even with the part and within a safe distance off the edge of the left side of the part. A refresher on operating the remote handwheel can be found in a separate blog post.

STEP 10: Now that the edge finder is close to the part, reduce the movement per click of the handwheel so that you can perform very fine movements.

STEP 11: Bring the edge finder into contact with the edge of the part and then slowly continue the movement until the edge finder is spinning true.

STEP 12: Once spinning true, advance the edge finder one click at a time until it moves far enough to break to the side.

STEP 13: Press G54-X, resulting in a dialog box that will request you to enter the touch-off radius.

STEP 14: Use the number pad to enter half the diameter of the edge finder as a negative number. The number is negative since you are coming off of the left side of the part.

STEP 15: Use the handwheel to back the edge finder off of the part.

STEP 16: Repeat steps #7 through #12, but off of the front of the part instead of the left side.

STEP 17: Press G54-Y to bring up the request for the touch-off radius.

STEP 18: Repeat step #14, again using a negative number since you’re off the front of the part.

STEP 19: Use the handwheel to move the tool off of the part and adjust the Z axis to bring the spindle into a position where you can replace the edge finder with a tool.

At this point, you can load tools and touch off tool lengths!