Was about to get a toy- then I did some research...

[Kitwn]

And soft limits are there to stop you accidentally crashing the machine due to any one of a dozen easy mistakes. But they only work only AFTER you have used the homing switches to tell the machine where it is.

[JAZZCNC]

And soft limits are there to stop you accidentally crashing the machine due to any one of a dozen easy mistakes. But they only work only AFTER you have used the homing switches to tell the machine where it is.

That's not quite correct actually. Soft limits will work without a home switch by just hitting Home all, after which home will be where ever the machine happens to be parked. However, it's not advised because then you still crash the machine into the ends. But if your going to fit just home switches then you may as well make them move with the axis and have them double up as Homes and limits.

[Kitwn]

....... However, it's not advised because then you still crash the machine into the ends.

Precisely!
I have one set of switches which double up as limit and homing switches. This is very easy to configure in LinuxCNC. Once the machine has homed itself the soft limits will prevent the limit switches from disabling the stepper drivers (most annoying!) even if I get the gantry out of the way by just pressing the LEFT button on the USB Nintendo game controller (er, sorry, meant to say "sophisticated manual pendant") until it stops.

As Hermione Granger (almost) said "Simple but effective".