How Did You Get Into CMM Programming?

First QC job I had, everyone was expected to learn how to use the CMM eventually. Shop had grown very quickly and about 15 to 20 new QC inspector trainees were hired in about 2 years time. Took about 5 years for it to be my turn.

First CMM I worked with didn't even have a computer. Really early model Cordax. Had a DRO with hard probes. You had to mechanically align the part on the table and literally drop the hard tapered probe into the holes.

After a couple years we upgraded to a Cordax CMM with a HP computer and a tape drive. Had a massive 5 inch screen and a built in thermal printer. Still mainly used hard probes but there was also a touch probe. You had to tell the CMM which direction to apply probe compensation.

We also had a DEA gantry CMM with a 5 foot by 9 foot granite table. It was a manual machine that ran off a computer the size of two lockers. Didn't have a display. Everything was printed on a teletype printer. Printer was parked under the Gantry Cross beams that were only 5 1/2 feet above the floor. Lots of cracked heads. Probe was qualified using a cube shape artifact. If you wanted to change the orientation of the probe you had to disassemble and reassemble it from the mast. Orientation was limited to +X, -X, +Y, -Y and Z.

Finally got our first DCC CMM's for the shop floor a few years later. 1808 Cordax's with real PC's. We measured first parts, last parts and occasional parts during the run. Had Renishaw PH9 probe heads. Doing a probe qualification could be a real pain. You had to move the probe close to the calibration sphere, take a reading and then move the probe to another point that hopefully created the correct vector. If you screwed that up the probe would move in an unexpected direction. You couldn't cancel the movement; you would have to shutdown the CMM and start over. One of the guys eventually figured out how to calculate vectors and enter them into the calibration code. He created a checklist/ cheat sheet for us to use.

First QC job I had, everyone was expected to learn how to use the CMM eventually. Shop had grown very quickly and about 15 to 20 new QC inspector trainees were hired in about 2 years time. Took about 5 years for it to be my turn.

First CMM I worked with didn't even have a computer. Really early model Cordax. Had a DRO with hard probes. You had to mechanically align the part on the table and literally drop the hard tapered probe into the holes.

After a couple years we upgraded to a Cordax CMM with a HP computer and a tape drive. Had a massive 5 inch screen and a built in thermal printer. Still mainly used hard probes but there was also a touch probe. You had to tell the CMM which direction to apply probe compensation.

We also had a DEA gantry CMM with a 5 foot by 9 foot granite table. It was a manual machine that ran off a computer the size of two lockers. Didn't have a display. Everything was printed on a teletype printer. Printer was parked under the Gantry Cross beams that were only 5 1/2 feet above the floor. Lots of cracked heads. Probe was qualified using a cube shape artifact. If you wanted to change the orientation of the probe you had to disassemble and reassemble it from the mast. Orientation was limited to +X, -X, +Y, -Y and Z.

Finally got our first DCC CMM's for the shop floor a few years later. 1808 Cordax's with real PC's. We measured first parts, last parts and occasional parts during the run. Had Renishaw PH9 probe heads. Doing a probe qualification could be a real pain. You had to move the probe close to the calibration sphere, take a reading and then move the probe to another point that hopefully created the correct vector. If you screwed that up the probe would move in an unexpected direction. You couldn't cancel the movement; you would have to shutdown the CMM and start over. One of the guys eventually figured out how to calculate vectors and enter them into the calibration code. He created a checklist/ cheat sheet for us to use.