Carbide Bit Setter (for shapeoko)

what this does and why you need this.

The carbide bit setter is the tool to make the day to day cnc work much easier, especially if you use the carbide nomad cnc or shapeoko cnc and use carbide motion for control.

The bit setter is different from the Shapeoko BitZero, The zero probe is for initial zero of the x and y axis, by probing the side and end of the block as it sits on top of your work piece. The z can be probed at the same time to zero the axis to your work.

In not using the bit setter, the process for changing a bit and resetting zero is a little long and slow. This is especially painful when running a job with a lot of short tool paths with a lot of different tools. After finishing a file, you then jog to the front, change the bit, reset the zero probe (fully up on the workpiece if using carbide motion), jog back to just over the zero probe, and then move the bit close to the surface. Finally it is time to run the rezero in carbide motion (only if you remembered to plug in the ground), now put the probe away, and run the next file.

The option to this is using a paper method to rezero the z axis. This is the method I choose since it is faster to get back to cutting the next gcode.

The paper method involves changing out the bit, and then jogging (pg down) on my usb keyboard from amazon. The number keys change the increment of the jog, so move close to the top of the work surface, set increment to smaller number, and then keep jogging down to the work surface. Before getting there, take a piece of notebook paper and place between the tool and the work surface. jog until this just makes contact. Then jog up, and set increment lower and do the same again. now zero the bit and you are ready to run your next gcode file.

Now, if you had a bit setter, you use a different post processor and now combine all the files into a single gcode.

Load the gcode and it will run the bit setter and pick up the bit and do a touch off at the location you set in carbide motion. The zero the bit as you did above with the bitzero block. Now set zero and run your gcode. Now when it gets time to change a bit, the program will shut off the spindle, or notify you to if a router, and then you change the bit hit continue and the machine will touch off the bit again on the bit setter. It is spring loaded to not damage the bit, and does so pretty quick. Now it is ready to continue running the file until the next bit change. Big time saver and very accurate.