Quote Originally Posted by m_c View Post
If the turret has been machined correctly, then all the tool slots should be at identical heights, so you shouldn't need any shims as long as you are using the correct size of toolholder.
Regarding inserts, post up any numbers on what you have, as there are only a few different basic shapes of inserts for lathes, unless the holder is for something very specific.

Referencing a lathe in Mach, depends on if it has homing switches or not. If it doesn't have homing switches, then personally I'd add at least one on the X-axis, as that is the most critical axis.
However, in a nutshell, without homing switches, all tool offsets are taken as on offset from your master tool. At startup, you take a test cut with the master tool, measure the cut, and enter the size into the DRO, so Mach then has a known reference point.
If you have homing, then you don't have a master tool, and all tool offsets are an offset from the home/reference position.

Where about is middle of nowhere?

John is right, middle of no-where in my case is far north of the WG, a rural village in Scotland. Went to look for gold and got stuck here.

I was wondering if there was a tool insert standard. I have some Tizit tool holders:

sdncn 1212 m11, Ceratizit stock number 221870
sdjcl 1212 H11, Ceratizit stock number 7068521200
sdjcr 1212 f09 , Ceratizit stock number 77343

For the parting tool I bought a new one which I can get inserts off ebay for instead of trying to finding the Ceratizit ones.

I don't understand what you mean by correct size of tool holder. The holder is the turret slots in the wheel, there are no individual adjustment. The adjustment on the cog wheel adjusts them all at the same time, it would be impossible to line them all up this way.

What you say about the referencing/homing is pretty much what the mach3 manual says also, but I don't know how to determine if there is a homing switch or not. The original manual for the Orac says there are homing switches, so maybe there is. I can understand generally what your saying and the manual, but I'm finding it confusing on some points like I don't know how to test if the homing works because it seems to need a cutting program to run, or maybe not, this is the confusing part. Once I understand how to make this work then it's just getting the wizards to work. Getting closer.

There is one program I really like, it's Denford's 2D quick turn cad/cam for turning as it's really easy to use being made for teaching in schools, but it's £168 and it's not possible to try the code first to see if it works with Mach3, although it does say it can save a .tap file. Anyway, I'll use the wizards first to learn and then hopefully move on to some cad/cam software.