Steve Schermann - Applications Manager
You’ve powered up your Milltronics INSPIRE+ machine. You’ve set the part zero, or work coordinates. You’ve used conversational programming to enter your part program. The tools are in the machine. Follow this step-by-step guide to touch your tools off, and you’ll be making chips in no time.
Note: Prior to starting this procedure, make sure your work coordinate Z value is set to 0.00.
STEP 1: You’ll start by calling up the first tool you’ll be touching off. Press F5 to select MDI and bring up the command window. Note that if you’re loading the tools and touching them off at the same time, you might want to take a minute to review our “How to Load Tools into Tool Changer” blog post.
STEP 2: Enter M06 for tool change, combined with T and the tool position. To call up the tool in the first position, enter “M06T1.”
STEP 3: Press the F5 button to run. Then, when a green message box appears, press the green, blinking Cycle Start button to perform the tool change.
STEP 4: Place the (dial) height gauge on your workpiece.
STEP 5: Press the Escape button to exit the MDI window.
STEP 6: With the machine doors still open, press F3 to select Handwheel.
STEP 7: To enable movement with the doors open, enter your machine’s protective passcode when prompted. If you haven’t changed the passcode, it will be set to the default of “0000.”
STEP 8: Using the handwheel, position the tool above the dial gauge and slowly bring it into contact with the surface of the gauge. If you need a quick refresher on using the handwheel, you can reference our “How to Use Remote Handwheel” blog post.
STEP 9: With the handwheel set to the finest possible movements per click (0.0001”), adjust the Z axis until your gauge reads 0.
STEP 10: Press F6 for Z tool.
STEP 11: When prompted, input the gauge height and then press the enter button. If you were performing this process without a height gauge, you would enter 0.0 when the tool touches the top of your workpiece.
STEP 10: When prompted, input the tool diameter and then press the enter button.
STEP 11: Use the handwheel to back the tool off of the gauge and workpiece.
STEP 12: Repeat steps #1 through #11 for each tool that you need to touch off.
Note that if you’re setting off more than one or two tools, you can use a canned program to make the process even easier. You’ll follow many of the above steps, but with some slight changes.
STEP 1: Press F4 to bring up the canned programs menu.
STEP 2: Press F11 to select “Tool Set.”
STEP 3: Press the green, blinking Cycle Start button.
STEP 4: Input the gauge height and then press the enter button.
STEP 5: When prompted, input the number of the tool position you want to call up, and then press the enter button.
STEP 6: Once the machine has retrieved the desired tool, with the machine doors still open, press F3 to select Handwheel.
STEP 7: To enable movement with the doors open, enter your machine’s protective passcode when prompted. If you haven’t changed the passcode, it will be set to the default of “0000.”
STEP 8: Using the handwheel, position the tool above the dial gauge and slowly bring it into contact with the surface of the gauge. If you need a quick refresher on using the handwheel, you can reference our “How to Use Remote Handwheel” blog post.
STEP 9: With the handwheel set to the finest possible movements per click (0.0001”), adjust the Z axis until your gauge reads 0, then press the enter button.
STEP 10: When prompted, input the tool diameter and then press the enter button.
STEP 11: Repeat steps #5 through #10 for each tool that you need to set.
STEP 12: Press the green, blinking Cycle Start button.
Whether you’ve used the canned cycle or the full touch-off process for each tool, you’re now ready to run your program and start making parts!
Steve Scherman has over a decade of experience in machine tool applications. Currently, he is Milltronics’ Applications Manager. You can reach him at [email protected].
