setting a tool indexer on a mach 3 lathe

[Neale]

The right answer is obviously to fit the tool changer with a home switch so that Mach3 can properly initialise it when you first start - the only way to avoid a manual operation. Not necessarily an easy task!

My own workaround would be to write a little macro that updates the internal tool number record and attach it to a button that is added to an appropriate screen, or just a check box that tells the M6 tool changer macro whether or not to move the tool changer when a tool is selected. Then you could tick the box, issue an M6T?? command to set the tool number to match the changer position, then untick the box and carry on.

This all assumes that you cannot just change the tool number by typing it into the box on screen, like a work coordinate, but I'm sure that you have tried this! I moved off Mach3 a few years ago so can't help with macros and so on but I have done exactly this kind of thing in the past so know that it is doable.