I received my V1E package a few days ago and missed to order the tinytouchplate package. I would like to order it, it’s approximately 9$ with additional 40$ shipping. The shipping is 4x as much as the product itself.
Is there a cheaper alternative shipping method? (Shipping to Europe / Germany)
What parts exactly are necessary?
Are there any amazon links?
It is a small metal spatula with a wire attached on one end. On the other wire, there is a clip, attached to a magnet.
The way it works is you put the clip/magnet wire on the gnd on your controller, and attach it to your bit.
The spatula wire connects to the signal of the Zmin.
When they touch, they close a circuit.
The one Ryan sells has all the parts ready to go. The spatula is a very precise 0.5mm thick. The spatula has a nice V1 logo on it. But there is nothing more special about it. Foil tape on a stick would work fine.
I don’t think I am offending Ryan here. I am sure he would rather you send $5 as a thank you, and find or make your own probe in Germany. The shipping is painful for him. Especially internationally. No one wants you to spend $50 on a z min probe.
I used to work for an auto parts warehouse shipping internationally. The customs paperwork is a pain, verifying the customer address is a pain (they were surprisingly formatted incorrectly frequently, and correspondence with the customer was necessary to correct), the cost to ship was extremely high, and at the end of the day you had a 20% chance the shipment would get held up in customs with the customer blaming you for excessive shipping times… Dealing with it is all kind of a thankless task. When you consider the time involved, Ryan probably is net negative on a transaction like the one mentioned above.
You can make one yourself: MPCNC Primo Schneewittchen - Oldenburg, Germany - #41 by Tokoloshe
A simple aluminium plate with the two contacts works as well, or even only aluminium foil.
Yea, my first one was a pci blanking plate off the back of an old computer. 
Sacrificing a feeler gauge leaf would be better, then you’d know what the offset actually is.
Absolutely, anything works. There is a video of Darwin using all sorts of things in a recent video. @Darwin happen to have a link?
If you BBQ you have the makings of a z-probe 
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Thank you!