The $400 touch probe that paid for itself in one week
I finally dropped $400 on a cheap touch probe for my mill after years of eyeballing z-heights and crashing two end mills. That thing saved my bacon on a 50-piece job with tight tolerances, no more wasted stock or re-cutting parts. Anyone else shell out for a tool that ended up being worth every penny, or did you get burned buying one?
Man, $400 sounds like a lot until you do the math on scrapped parts. Two crashed end mills plus wasted stock and you're already over that, easy. I did the same thing with a cheap edge finder years ago and never looked back. Tools that kill the guesswork are the ones that actually pay off.