Homing switches & 'methods of working' (Mach3)

[audioandy]

Hi Rob

Home switches are useful for repeatability if you want to use the center of the table you will use one of the offsets in Mach, G54 onwards I think they are, so you could set up a fixture in the center of the table then using the offset go to the exact same start position every time.

Hope that makes sense!

Andy

[John S]

Andy has it in one,
Read up in the Mach manual on the use of G54

[Robin Hewitt]

so you could set up a fixture in the center of the table then using the offset go to the exact same start position every time.

Andy hit the nail on the head. Homing switches are useful if you are working with a fancy metal clamping jig bolted down at a known location on the machine bed.

I don't use MACH because as soon as you start working from G code you lose touch with the original drawing and cannot refer back to it when you want to align tool to metal.

I locate by circles on the drawing, circles with a zero thickness do not cut but I can still see them.

I pop the drawing on the screen and every circle has a little pick box dead centre. Left mouse button on a pick box moves the tool to the circle centre, right button sets the mill XY co-ordinates to the circle centre.

Drilling holes becomes a doddle on my mill/drill, alignment is all sorted at the drawing stage.

[motoxy]

I don't use MACH because as soon as you start working from G code you lose touch with the original drawing and cannot refer back to it when you want to align tool to metal.

I locate by circles on the drawing, circles with a zero thickness do not cut but I can still see them.

I pop the drawing on the screen and every circle has a little pick box dead centre. Left mouse button on a pick box moves the tool to the circle centre, right button sets the mill XY co-ordinates to the circle centre.

Drilling holes becomes a doddle on my mill/drill, alignment is all sorted at the drawing stage.

May I ask what you use if you do not use g code?

bruce

[Robin Hewitt]

May I ask what you use if you do not use g code?

You only need G code to transfer the cut from the program that produced it to the program that does the cutting.

My software creates the cut then pumps it directly to the mill so I miss the file copying stage, no need for G code.

Having the original drawing as well as the cut available makes setting the mill a doddle, but I can't say I'd recommend it