Broke a Probe (ouch!)

[jeffreymcgrew]

OK, so I'm feeling really, really stupid. I was running a probing job and missed a hole in the surface of the object that was large enough for the tip of the probe to plunge into. So when the probe reached that spot, it plunged into the hole, the edge of the hole hit the edge of the shaft of the probe (not the tip) and a sad, sad 'pop' noise happened.

Now the probe is loose in it's fitting, before it was tight (so it would spring back to center). I've taken it apart to see if it's something obvious, and am having a hard time figuring out what's wrong with it. It's a newer style probe, from Shopbot. Can anyone give me a hint, or point me to the company that makes these probes so that I can get a diagram of the inside and/or order a new part?

Thanks a ton.

[steve4460]

Hi Jeffrey

Call shopbot they will fix you up asap.

Bot on dude

[jeffreymcgrew]

Hey, just a note to any other fool (like me) who 'breaks' their probe:

This is the non-optical style probe from Shopbot.

If you go too deep with your probe, and you hear a pop, you've probably just jammed the part that holds the probe in place up into it's shaft. There is a metal tapered pin with a spring behind it that holds down the probe tip inside the 'cup' part. It can get forced up into the shaft of the upper part of the probe. You can get it back out with some needle-nose pliers, and everything will work fine again.

Don't be fooled, as I was, by the metal pin *appearing* to intentionally be mounted up inside the shaft, and think that there is some other part that went between the pin and the top of the probe that's now lost and/or broken. The pin is the part that holds the top of the probe down tight so that it's not loose in it's cup.

(feeling like a total moron now)