It appears that using a touch plate for the z-axis on a Shapeoko 3 requires entering a command-line in CarbideMotion, at least based on a video I’ve found on youtube. Is that the best method? I could always program a macro on a key of the keyboard, just want to make sure I’m not making this more difficult than need be.
Also, in reading through the FAQ section I found a “Working with Homing” doc which says (a couple of times) to touch-off the material for the Z-axis. What are they actually suggesting here? Do users lower the bit until it touches the material and won’t go any further?
I’ll tell you what I do now: I have some brass setup bars. I’ll use a 1/2" (12.7-MM) bar and I will lower the Z-axis until the bit is about 8 or 10-MM from the workpiece. With my setup bar on my material and pressed against the bit, I slowly start raising the bit until my setup bar is able to slip under the bit.
90% of the time, I use my cutter to probe the material, then click Z0, done. Takes 30 sec. If I am cutting something non conductive, I use a piece of paper, lower the Z until it catches on the paper. I then lower my Z 0.003 (Thickness of my paper), click Z0.
I NEVER, nor have I ever heard of a machinist lowering their Z until the cutter is resting firmly onto the material. Please stop doing this, it is bad for the hard but fragile cutter (Micro chips are common)
Oh I’m not lowering the cutter into the material, I only asked because the article here said to “touch-off the material” and I wasn’t sure how people are accomplishing that.
The method I use is to keep RAISING the bit until I can slip a 12.7-MM brass bar underneath it. I just apply some pressure against the bit and once the bit is high enough, the bar will slip under and I enter 12.7-MM as my Z. Not perfect, can be tedious and probably not super-accurate.
Tell me more about your paper method, what do you have your jog amount set to, .1-MM or .01-MM?
I’m looking for a less tedious and more precise method, if possible.
One last Q: When you switch into inches on the jogging screen, does it have any impact on your code or is it just for jogging and the display of coordinates?
I ask because I’m saving my jobs (form Cut2D) in metric and I’m curious if I change to inches on the jogging screen, do I need to save my g-code differently?
Switching to inches I do think would make the touching-off method you describe more practical.
I probe with a clip wire. I put one clip on the bit, the other on a 3.175mm aluminum plate which rests on top of my material. Then probe with the g38 command. When it stops it sets z to 3.175mm which is the offset so that the top of the material is 0 as is required.
On the other hand I rarely use carbide motion so this entire process is automated for me. I do use carbide create from time to time but I prefer other controller software due to these features that carbide motion really lacks.
Well I’m going to continue looking into the touch plates but using a sheet of paper for touching-off works way better than the brass setup bars I was using, so thanks for that!