Hello, I'm a Cabinetmaker trying to incorporate CNC into my woodwork and very new to CNC so please forgive my ignorance.

I don't usually post as I usually find the answer - especially when it comes to fixing computers. However I'm at a loss, I'm by no stretch of the imagination an engineer and a lot of CNC talk may as well be Martian.

I purchased a CNC A4 Router with the very basic training and the whole setup - Laptop (capable of running Mach 3) and Vcarve Pro. The laptop was already setup with Mach 3 and the settings correct for the machine.

On the training day I was advised that when loading the gcode the tool is to be moved to a reference point (say the centre of the project) and then zero'd out in the coord's along with the soft limits button depressed (highlighted green). When the project is finished or Mach3 shut down - the next time you start up you can press ref all home and the tool will go back to it's machine position and the CNC bed/laptop will know where the tool is in space. I hope that made sense?

For the last week I have been getting to grips with 3D work and the in's and out's of Vcarve Pro. A couple of days ago I decided to load a model and begin on my first project. But. somewhere along the way I have gone and messed the settings up. Also, I didn't make a back up of the original XML file which would have be fantastic and I wouldn't have wasted what feels like forever.

I have being trying to get back to that once perfect state and I have trawled through forum and have been pointed to the mach 3 support but it's really not sinking in at the moment. Probably because for what seems like endless hours has given me tunnel vision and I'm trying to start my business up which has been added pressure.

Please could a vet of CNC guide me in Lay terms what I need to do step by step to get ref all home to work and the X Y Z zero buttons highlighted back to green. Short of that Ill hire someone to set up my machine and give me a more in depth lesson on the working of Mach 3.

Vcarve is sorted btw ;)

Thank you in advance,

P.S there are limit switches if that helps.