KP3 Error or Mill? <Solved, Probe issue>

[tblough]

Just remember, you are not measuring the probe. You are measuring the probe PLUS your machine. We all have delusions on how accurate our machines are.

[RJS100]

I re-checked the concentricity of the probe and sure enough it was considerably off, confirming my guess that I did not tighten the adjustment screws on the probe adequately. I fixed these and eliminated virtually all probe run-out.

I repeated the calibration test and got better overall results (I also rotated the probe) and the x and y measurements are now fairly close:
Error: -.00049
X Diameter: .99787
Y Diameter: .99959

I then repeatedly measured the z height of the top of the calibration ring setting z axis reference to zero on the first iteration. Here are the results:

.0011
.0008
-.0001
-.0003
.0007
.0006

At the beginning of this post, I had a faulty probe, and it was not measuring z heights consistently. To test the mill Uwe had me perform the test show below. With a .0005 dial test indicator, the mill returned to the exact same position each time, confirming that the probe needed to be sent info repairs and the mill was performing properly. Now, with a repaired probe there is total variance between the z height measurements of .0014 which is double the Z Repeatability results that came with the repaired probe of .00017

Any ideas on this?


Move the head to a similar position like with the probe. Set the dial indicator to 0 set Z to zero
MDI:
G1 Z0.1 F5
G1 Z0 F5

Repeat several times.

Uwe