As for a swapable tip, what I was trying to accomplish was automated re homing to adapt to the workpiece as it bowed. Having to swap tips between each cut wouldn’t be useful.
So I did some quick testing with my touchplate harness. It, just like the auto homing worked great…until the various additional grounds were hooked up. The moment you touch the alligator clip to the torch, it triggers. And if you swap the wires, the end stop triggers when the touch plate is in the grates.
If I just go ahead and stick to a single z homing at the beginning of the program, I could use your insulated tip idea maybe? Or what I was thinking was use the existing tip, but use a phenolic touchplate with aluminum tape on the top connected to the other wire.
Just wanting to see if the machine worked in principal, I manually triggered the z stop close to the workpiece. And ran the file…
Presto! I need to slow the feedrate down a bit, turn up the amperage, get rid of the lead in, and possibly change to climb milling to move in a clockwise direction. (Gotta do some tests to see what the torch likes.)
So at least I have a little motivation to get back out there tomorrow and come up with a z homing solution!