Touch Probe Preserver

A ring with a diameter larger than the body of your 3D XYZ touch probe, that attaches to the sensing stylus, making the probe activate before a crash whenever your fat finger presses the wrong button. I won't judge. My fingers want to press all the wrong buttons.

Designed to fit the generic “V6 3D Touch Probe” popular for small CNC:s like my Makera Carvera Air. If your probe or stylus is different from mine, ping me in the comments or make a variant in OnShape. The OD and ID are parametric, making simple mods easy :)

Your CNC controller must be setup to stop on detection even during travel moves, and your probe must be active and plugged in for this to work. It won't help in all situations, like if the ring fits under an overhang, or if the cable gets squished. But it's already saved me a bunch of times.🥶It will unfortunately reduce the reach of the stylus by about 8 mm or so. Whenever that's a problem I just take it off.

I 3D printed mine in ASA with a 0.4 mm nozzle, 0.2 mm layer height, 4 walls, 50% infill. Anything should work, really. It will press-fit onto the upper knurled part of the stylus and stay there. Don't press it on too far, leave a gap between the ring and the probe body so it has room to move. Verify that everything works away form any danger before trusting it. If the fit isn't exactly right for you, either drill it out or modify the file in OnShape.

I can't take credit for the idea: Heavily inspired by OldBoyIndustries Probe Halo!

Huge shoutout to Fae Corrigan (Props Monster) for making the community 3D probe possible on the Makera CNCs ❤