Building first star probe

[[Ri...]]

I finally got some styli in and amongst them are two star probes.



The fixed one on the left is the type I remember we had used in the basic class. But I dont have the 5 stylii that are required to build it as they are on backorder.

The one on the right I am not familiar with at all. It's the type you have to screw together.
How does one go about squaring this thing up to the machine coordinate system? Just eyeball it? How critical is it that it be square to the machine, as there's no 90° hard points on the machine to nudge it up against and tighten it down?

There's also nothing in the sensor book , machine manual or eLearning portal about qualifying star probes. Is there any third party documentation or resource to show how to go through a star probe qualification once I do find a way to line it up and lock down?

I have a Vast XXT RDS-C-CAA, so I imagine that I don't want to go entering different angles when creating each orientation? I'm just generally confused and it's been almost a year since I took that basic class and these are the first probes to come in the building since that time. My skill set has perished a little while waiting for my budget to finally come to fruition.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

[[No...]]

Have you weighed the probe on the right? Judging by the photo, these are not XXT styli (but standard M3 styli for Renishaw heads etc.). The whole thing may be too heavy for an XXT head.

Star probes are qualified like any other probe: one stylus after another. I don't have an RDS head so I can tell you nothing about that.

Lining it up 90°, yes....not so easy with these XXT toys 😃 I would build some kind of fixture that lines up mechanically to the balls in the plate and also has some protruding bar or something that shows the correct orientation. Here at my workplace I would put it on the O-Inspect or a microscope and check the angles. But you may not have such useful tools... 😮

[[Am...]]

Its pretty hard without the Fix-Assist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijO3mtPzbIc) which costs about $4,000 if I remember. You either make a fixture yourself or just eyeball it, which is tough because even when you line it up well tightening it can turn it just slightly. My first star probe was like that and I've just been buying the fixed cubes now. I think the Fix-Assist is a bit overkill for making stars at 90° I wouldn't get it unless you are going to be making probes at lots of other angles.

[[Cl...]]

I used an optical comparator to set the angles.

[[Ri...]]

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TL3 weight limit is 15 grams, the specs from ITP show me at 6.7 grams, sans the adapter plate. So i should be good in that respect.

I will machine something up for the alignment. 4000.00$+ for a t-slot machined in a block of acrylic seems, well i'll just keep that to myself. 😡

[[No...]]

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Ok. TL2 (or whatever we have) limit is 10 grams including (!) the plate.

[[Ow...]]

I think the adapter plate, extension and cube weight are around 6 to 7g themselves.