My Cheapo Chineese 3020t mini CNC Build (more like improvements) leanring all the way

[Clive S]

Cheers lads,

yeah one step at a time andy mate

cheers clive, I will probably set the machine home to the highest z point and x,y to be the centre of the bed as the parts im going to be making will mostly be fixed down to the tooling plate around the edges, so makes sense to keep the spindle away from part? Or maybe at the rear of the bed in the middle

I think you are misunderstanding the difference between machine zero and work zero. You are correct to have the Z home to the top then all z gcode will be negative. its nice to home the machine so that X & Y movements to the work position are +ve.

The work zero G54 is generally where you set it in CAD. So after you have homed you then move the machine to the Zero in CAD then touch off at that point. Work zero G54 can be anywhere on the table and in a different place every time if you want. The Home position is always in the same place.