New 6040 owner looking for advice from others with a chinese 6040/3040

[JAZZCNC]

My everyday zeroing on wood is the following:

-hit the TAB button on mach 3. Set feed-rate to 3. Hit F5 and start the spindle/ if its connected via your breakout board/. Or just start it. So with this slow feedrate using the arrows buttons on the keyboard, move the thing and touch the center. Hit the XYZ buttons to 0. Lift the spindle. Stop it. Now you have zeroed. Simple, isn't it.

BAD PRACTICE to start the spindle don't do this.!! . . . . Just Jog down close and when close switch Jog Mode to Step, set the steps to some small number and creep up on the surface. This way you haven't got to mess around setting Low feeds etc.

Better still just Make a touch Probe it takes 30mins max and saves loads of time when setting parts. It's something you'll never want to be without ounce used.!!

[Boyan Silyavski]

BAD PRACTICE to start the spindle don't do this.!! . . . . Just Jog down close and when close switch Jog Mode to Step, set the steps to some small number and creep up on the surface. This way you haven't got to mess around setting Low feeds etc.

Better still just Make a touch Probe it takes 30mins max and saves loads of time when setting parts. It's something you'll never want to be without ounce used.!!

Most of the time I work with wood which is not even planed, rough cut wood /cheaper/, so probe will not work, in fact it does not work, as my probe is hanging helplessly in the dirt without me needing it. I use it only with plastic and aluminum.
Most of the time i am eyeing the 0, so if the spindle is not spinning mistakes in the range of 1mm are done.

Furthermore my copper ring probe in the summer is 0.325 inch high and in the winter is 0.323. And the steel touchplate cut from supported square rail f---ks the tip of my sharpest V cutters

I trust more my feeling, ears and my eyes than on a probe, as in general i work with less than perfect materials, where every time a different decision has to be made.
But hey, that's me. I don't encourage any body here, just sharing.

[Sabre]

Hello All! I hope you don't mine me jumping into the conversation, but i just received a 6040z for Christmas and am searching for as much information as possible about how to start it up and get it running correctly. I was searching the web for information and stumbled upon this site. Great information being shared here. It is greatly appreciated.

A little info on where I am so far. I have the machine all put together with Mach3 loaded on a clean version of Win XP Pro in a Dell tower. I also installed a trial version of VCarve today. Have rust inhibitor in the water container and have replaced the extremely loud water pump with a quiet 250 gpm one.

I am so much of a beginner. The only thing i am sure of is that I do not know enough to know what is important to ask. lol

Cheers

Sabre

[Clive S]

Sabre Hello and welcome to the forum. This thread is 2 years old now. It might be better for you to start a new thread to ask any questions you might have then all your answers will be in one place.
It does not matter how simple your questions are we all have to start somewhere.

[Sabre]

Sabre Hello and welcome to the forum. This thread is 2 years old now. It might be better for you to start a new thread to ask any questions you might have then all your answers will be in one place.
It does not matter how simple your questions are we all have to start somewhere.

Hi Clive,

Thanks for the heads up. I did not look at when it started. Duh!

Will post new and see what happens.

Thanks again

Sabre