That seems pretty neat, but even better is: hand wheel the probe somewhere near the middle of a hole, select 'find center', push cycle start - it probes four directions, calculates where the center is, and gives you the option to change the work coordinates for that point to whatever you like. Now, this is gloating a bit, but with the Heidenhain control and the electronic probe, you just select probe cycles, select which direction, push cycle start, and you are done - it advances to touch the work and retracts to the starting point, displaying the edge position on screen. Soooo much quicker than touching off tools and bashing into work with edge finders and LED toys, no need to remember what the diameter of the finder is, and do I add it or subtract it on this side? Any other tool can be measured and the difference punched into the control as the length offset (assuming you set Z zero referenced to the Haimer).

But I put the probe in the tool setter, run the mic down until the Haimer reads zero, then write the reading on the tool setter base. Works the same in Z, of course Zero is only relative to itself in Z. Since you can see it approaching zero, you have some feedback as to how close you are and how fast to go - no more marked parts and chipped end mills, speed on the approach and caution when near zero, just like you want. When you reach zero, the spindle is directly over the edge being probed. As you probe an deflect the tip, the reading goes down to zero (and past into positive numbers if you go too far).

At rest and un-deflected, it reads -0.1000. It will read zero when the tip is deflected exactly 0.1000 in any direction. I will attempt to describe it briefly: The tip moves in three dimensions, but you probe in only one direction at a time. If you have never used one of these it is hard to imagine how easy it makes life. The tool is about 4' long with a 20mm stylus, so a short holder helps keep the assembly nearer to the length of a cutting tool, and that is convenient for several reasons. You need a suitable collet chuck or end mill holder to take the shank - runout doesn't matter since you adjust that out when setting it up. Or the metric with the 10mm shank, just don't get surprised ordering one and expecting the other. If you get one, you need to order the English units with the 3/8 shank. But you DO learn not to crash real quick :p. Every time you crash a probe, you tear up a $10 and a $20 when the ceramic weak link snaps. It is surprisingly inexpensive, as these things go.

Get touch screen and haimer