Hi All,
After doing the homing etc, and setting part zero can you jog away if necessary to another location and run your program
from the new jogged position ?
Thanks !
Brian
Should be able to, just set zero for the new location of the stock material.
Hi Will,
No, I mean leaving the original stock zero and just moving to a random position without setting a new part zero. All the tutorials show running from the stock zero position.
Brian
Yes this works. Just did it this weekend by accident. I put my stock on the machine, squared it up and clamped it down. Only to then realize that I put a clamp in the way of where I needed to zero. The end mill would not travel through that area other than to zero initially. So I removed the one clamp, zero’ed at that corner, set zero in Carbide Motion. Then I manually moved the router away from that point, set the clamp back in place, and ran my job without any issues.
When you start a job, as far as I can tell, in Carbide Motion it will start from wherever the router current position is. This assumes that you have set the zero properly.
Yes. Jog motion after setting the zero does not affect the zero.
I often set zero using a pointer rather than the cutting tool (for whatever reason I have never used a center finder with a CNC…), then reposition to allow for easy tool change.
Even when zeroing with the tool to be used, I still tend to bring the too up well clear of the work. Old habit from manual machining that has saved a number of tools over the years, and avoids surprises with the CNC, as well.
The tutorials probably show running from stock zero because not moving is one less un-needed thing to confuse a beginner.
Yes I realize that I do this as well. I will often finish a toolpath, then position the router manually somewhere convenient for a tool change, recheck zero (or adjust for a different stickout length), and then move on to the next toolpath.
Hi All,
Machinist in the wood shop 
Trying my first part and relating to best practice at the CNC mills and lathes in the metal shop. Always starting from a safe distance. Thanks for the replies !
Brian
1 Like