Hi guys, just been trying to understand how the Big Tex's macro works. Could someone please explain what the 'Initial Zero Setup' button does and also the 'Tool Change Zero Setup' button. I was watching Ger21's video which helps a lot but I don't get why you need a fixed and movable touch plate. Surely all you need is a movable touch plate over the top of you material work surface to zero your tool.
In the video, when Ger21 hits the 'Initial Zero Setup' button it zeros the tool to the work surface and also the fixed touch plate which I don't get.
The reason for the fixed plate, is so that you don't have to use the movable plate for subsequent tools. Say you have a program with 10 tool changes. You only use the movable plate once, before running the program. After each tool change, the new tool is automatically zeroed to the fixed plate. You don't have to do anything except change the tool, so it's much faster.
Another advantage to the fixed plate, is that after one or two operations, you may not have any surface to place the movable plate on. This can be very common with 3D carving. After the roughing pass, there may be no place left to zero the tool used for finishing.
But for production work, where you're running the same program over and over, using the tool table can save a lot of time.
This works fine on a mill where each tool is in a tool holder, but on a router, where you place each tool in the collet when changing tools, it's not an option.