Tool presetter display went haywire mid-run, lost 4 hours of setup

Had my tool presetter screen start flickering and then just freeze on random numbers during a setup for a mold base in Detroit. The readings looked fine at first, so I trusted it and ran a batch of 12 pockets. Turns out the Z offsets were off by 0.015 inch on three tools, scraped two inserts and gouged the workholding. I spent the rest of the day re-measuring everything with a height gauge and manual edge finder, which caught another 0.004 drift. The presetter is only 2 years old, so I'm guessing the encoder cable got pinched behind the stand. Has anyone else seen glitchy displays on these digital presetters after moving them around the shop?

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william_henderson15d ago

Tbh that sounds exactly like what happened to my old presetter last spring. We had one that started acting up right after we bolted it to a new cart and wheeled it across the shop floor, screen would go fuzzy then settle on numbers that looked fine but were way off. I caught it the same way you did, with a height gauge and a lot of cussing, and found the Z was drifting almost 0.01 on the third tool. Turns out the cable clip inside the stand had snapped and the wire was rubbing against the frame. Moved the unit back to its original spot and it's been fine since, but I still double check every offset with a test cut now.