Touch Plate Z is wrong

gSender ❓ Question
1

Pertaining to the Auto Zero Touch Plate…the X and Y probing is right on but the Z axis probe (either auto xyz/z or single Z probe) is consistently off by .004“ when using the center square and off by .002” when using the corner Z probe area. The Auto Zero plate center square measures .1951” thick while the corner Z probe plate measures .1982” thick. When using the corner Z plate in probe mode I get no Z error as long as I enter .198” for the Z thickness of the plate ….following along this thought line I selected Z probe and set a thickness of .195” and used the center square for the Z probe surface…this probed perfectly with no Z error at all.

The solution would be to have an Auto Zero Touch Plate that has the correct center square thickness needed for accurate Z probing with the Auto Zero Plate probe selected since there is no provision in the gSender software to adjust the Z center square thickness like there is in the straight Z probe selection. Another fix would be a plate thickness adjustment in gSender for the Auto Zero Probe setup. If anyone with the Auto Zero Touch Plate has had this issue or can verify it, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts…I suspect this is a machining issue with the Auto Zero Touch Plate.

1 Like
2

The auto zero touchplate routine ends 1mm (which is suspiciously similar to the 0.04" ‘discrepancy’ you mention) above the material. Are you seeing this 0.04 offset after pressing go to Z0 physically or just in the WCS offset reported in the software?

3

The discrepancy is .004 inch (4 thousandth). After the probe routine completes I remove the touch plate and then move the Z axis back down to indicated work surface zero (as read out on the gSender Z axis display) the tool tip is actually .004 inch from the surface of the material…not ON the surface of the work material as it should be. This error is repeatable and can easily be measured with a feeler gauge between work surface and tool tip. This will cause a 4 thousandth vertical error in anything I machine out…please let me know if I can further clarify anything.

4

Tech support sent me a new auto zero touch plate supposedly with correct center square thickness however it is (unfortunately) identically just as wrong as the first one. I will give up on this one and mark the topic kinda solved.