I’m having a problem with my machine cutting beyond the set material thickness. I set my Z zero manually because I am also having a problem with my machine smashing the bitsetter button… Anyway, my procedure is to power up, initialize, set X&Y at the bottom left corner of my material, then center up my bit on the middle of the stock I am cutting and manually set the Z zero using the paper technique. I run the file, but it goes beyond the thickness of the material
Which Z-axis does your machine have?
Is it possible that you have a Z-Plus configured as an HDZ?
If you set the origin at the surface of the MDF and jog up 1 inch how much does it move?
When using top of material as Z origin requires exact measurement of your material. If your material is slightly thicker than the material setting in CC you will leave an onion skin at the bottom. If your material is slightly less thick than you set then the Shapeoko will cut into the spoilboard.
It is very important to measure your material accurately.
I use bottom of material for everything I will cut through. The only time I use top of material is for jobs that will not be cutting through. It is still important that your material be measured carefully and entered in CC correctly.
Since using bottom of material I get very minimal scaring of my spoilboard. By using bottom of material I never get onion skin left in the bottom of the cut outs that is annoying to remove.
If you start using bottom of material you should be aware that if you are checking the rapid positions you need to jog off the material before doing a Z+6mm. Unless your material is less than 6mm you will crash into your project if you are over the material when you issue the Z+6mm.
What @WillAdams is asking which Z you have. The Z-Plus Z has fewer steps per MM than an HDZ. If you pick the wrong Z in setup you will either cut deeper or shallower than intended. Not sure about SO5 but on SO4 and SO3 the Z-Plus and HDZ run in opposite directions and if you pick the wrong Z you will fail initialization because the Z goes down instead of up.
Ah, the wrong Z setup makes sense. I didn’t think of that. Regarding the material thickness, I definitely checked that on multiple points and it is accurate. my bit was going way beyond… I’ll check the Z-Plus setup since I know I selected HDZ initially