I have an Elite Foreman w/ Masso and recently setup my RapidChange ATC.
I noticed that as part of the setup process, you are instructed to enter the same auto tool setter x/y location for every tool you register with the ATC, but after some experimentation, it seems that these settings are ignored (regardless of those settings, or the configuration in the rapid change ATC web ui, the machine uses the X/Y set in the Masso > Setup > Auto Tool Setter X/Y) for checking the tool length.
This is a shame, because I’m struggling with creating a repeatable process for two-sided jobs. The specific issue is that the 2” surfacing bit that I use to surface to a known stock thickness has 4 wings and a recessed central portion that is just larger than the head of the tool setter button.
The 2” surfacing bit won’t fit in a pocket of the ATC so it’s a manual tool change. I’ve tested a bunch and found the following:
-If I use the dead-center location for most tools, the 2’“ surfacing bit can vary by 10s of thousands upon repeated checks for its length (varying the rotation of the bit).
-If I use a location which is about .800” offset toward Y0, the 2” surfacing bit is alot more consistent, but at that location the “normal” bits suffer from more varyance than they should (more than 5 thou).
-Splitting the difference means that both vary (perhaps by a bit less).
Right now, whenever I manually insert the 2”, I have to change the auto-tool-setter location and remember to change it back when I switch back to a normal tool.
The ideal thing would be to have some way to setup specific tools to have a different x/y tool setter location.
Your best bet here is to continue using dead center. When you program your surfacing bit, just offset the cutting depth by the known amount of difference in z length from dead center to cutting tip. You might have to cut and measure to see how much that is, but after you figure it out, it will cut at the correct z height consistently.
If you don’t regularly use cutter compensation, then you could use that to probe at the circumference of your facing cutter. The process would look something like this:
Set the diameter of your facing cutter
Set the diameter of your other tools to zero
Modify the tool-changing routine so that it approaches the tool setter from a known direction
Modify the tool-changing routine to apply left/right (depending on the direction of approach) cutter compensation before moving to the tool setter. Cancel after moving to the tool setter.
After some googling and discussion with ChatGPT, here’s what I think I understand:
The Masso a built in feature called “cutter compensation” which is for another purpose, but if I’m not using it for that, it can be abused to achieve the spindle being offset from the center of the tool setter button only for this tool (tool 5 in my case).
I traced through all of the RapidChange subroutines trying to figure out where I’d insert this behavior, but came up empty.
Could to point me (even generally) towards where I’d modify the tool-changing routine (do I disable something in the Masso and then change my post processor? Do I change something in one of the RapidChange ATC subroutines?).
Hm, it seems like masso might not let you edit the M6 routine. Based on this video (https://youtu.be/udk8gchykdI) it looks like the rapidchange subroutines move to the tool setter and then let masso handle probing automatically when the M6 command is called.
This is a long-shot, but you could try very carefully enabling cutter compensation with a nonzero tool diameter and running a small G0 move to see if it’s affected by cutter compensation. Typically I don’t think you would use cutter comp during rapid moves, and it might just error out or ignore it. If it does seem to be affected, then you might be able to apply cutter comp prior to masso’s built-in M6 command and cancel it afterward. To be clear, masso probably shouldn’t let you do this, but who knows what will happen.
This could also be possible by disabling your tool setter in masso’s settings, and writing custom subroutines that you call instead of M6 whenever you want to set your tool length. You would then also need to update your postprocessor and rapidchange subroutines to use your tool setting routine instead of masso’s.