Another Haimer tip bites the dust or at least the mill bed

When I was at NYC CNC I saw that John was selling posters as shown below.

I didn’t realise the significance until I started doing CNC …..

I had been doing OK on breakages of late then like buses, two came along at once.  One was excusable (to my conscience) but the second was a disaster always likely to happen.

I had the Haimer held in a collet in the Myford VMB manual mill.  This means you need both hands occupied to contra rotate the collet and spindle when locking and unlocking.   I just overdid the realise pressure and the Haimer dropped out onto the mill bed.  Crunch, expletives, gloom, expense.  The tips are not cheap at GBP20+ each but Amazon do sell them.

There is the same issue to a lesser extent on the Tormach when releasing the power drawbar even though you are holding the Haimer the sudden momentum of the drop from the collet can sometimes catch you out if the mill table is close.

While discussing my gloom with a friend he suggested putting some sort of protection around the tip when loading and unloading from the spindle.   The Haimer is not an ideal shape for gripping something along these lines given its curved surfaces.  However after some thought a solution was found.   I drew a simple cylinder in Fusion that was 40mm long, 38mm OD and 32mm ID and 3D printed it.  Note these dimensions are for the Haimer FH 3D Taster version.

The cylinder sits over the probe and rests on the outer rim of the tip mounting.  The 32mm ID is just tight enough to squeeze the Haimer rubber gasket and so hold the tube in place.

Not only is this useful for mounting and dismounting the Haimer but it also works as a general protect guard when not in use.

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