Three Angle Head Considerations
There’s more to getting started using these accessories than simply loading them into your machine’s spindle.
Angle heads can greatly increase the versatility of a three-axis machine tool. Cogitic Corp. in Colorado Springs, Colorado, recognized the advantages of these auxiliary machine tool accessories some years ago. However, as one of the shop’s owners point out in our cover story for November, there are three aspects of using these machine tool accessories that, based on Cogitic’s experience integrating them into its processes, shops considering them should keep in mind:
- You’ll likely need a new postprocessor.
- You’ll have to develop a programming strategy to automatically accommodate tools of varying lengths that will be used in the heads.
- You’ll find that on-machine probing is a complementary capability that will speed and simplify the use of the heads.
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