Dropped $150 on a 3D probe set for my Haas and it paid off in one afternoon

I run a small side shop out of my garage on weekends, doing repair work for local machine shops. Last month I finally pulled the trigger on a Renishaw-style probe kit from one of the aftermarket suppliers. Figured if it saved me even one setup headache, it was worth it. First job I used it on was a bracket with 12 blind holes that had to be dead nuts on location. I probed all the datums and let the machine find zero on its own. Took maybe 20 minutes total, and the parts passed inspection on the first shot. Normally I would have spent an hour and a half facing and indicating with a dial test indicator. I still keep the old indicator in the drawer as a backup, but I don't see myself going back. Has anyone else switched to probing and found weird issues with repeatability on older machines?

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annas873mo ago

Not sure I buy it honestly. I keep a good old Haimer in the spindle and get better repeatability than any of those cheap import probes I've seen, @nguyen.tara just got lucky with that old Fadal.

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nguyen.tara3mo ago

Dropped my own probe on a beat up old Fadal and thought it was gonna be a waste of money. First part I ran with it came out perfect, saved me an hour of fighting with an edge finder. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing it years ago.

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