Good day today.
All hooked up, did preliminary threading tests. All went better than expected.
No motor control, fixed speeds by step pulleys. Will have spindle on/off control later.

This seems out of the ordinary to me, (new at cnc), but this machine cut consistent 48 tpi in brass at 1400 rpm. I was hoping for ,and expected, 600 to 700 rpm at best.  I was surprised by the cycle time too. All tuned up, 3 passes and 1 spring cut........9 seconds. (Length of thread = .300")

The only other problem I had, and I think I tried EVERYTHING, was ... After setting Machine 0 by the book, (the no switch method)  then Program 0 BTB, all worked well for the duration of the testing. I periodically went to the Manual page, homed X and Y individually and by the All button numerous times.

The last time I went to home it, nothing. All jogging worked perfect, all modes good. Keyboard and mouse. The auto cycle ran perfectly.
Finally, I jogged x&y to Machine 0.0000, hit Set Home again for both, then all was good.

I didn't understand what happened.
Grateful for any help with this.   

Dear Overloaded - I don't think I can help other than to say it is one of those things that happen now and then. I can't remember going to the manual page, home x and z and it not moving.

I am interested, however - did you get your home switches hooked up. You must have done. My lathe will home and set the DRO's to zero. Do you then use an offset on G54 or what. The other problem was the tool offset, which I haven't quite figured out yet.

I have a speed readout, using the index input from the spindle - if you are threading, does Mach3 adjust its speed of traverse to suit the thread, or what - there must be some tie in with the speed of the spindle if you are going to get an accurate thread.

Jim Pinder

Thanks for the reply Jim,
No home switches.
I wanted to do some testing before mounting the home and limit switches so I set the Machine Home position at near the extreme X+ & Y+ the way the M3 Turn Guide illustrates. Then jog to the part and set the Part/Program Coordinates, (offsets). All worked perfect. Whomever wrote the manual did a great job.

I also have an index sensor on the spindle, from CNC4pc. Excellent device BTW.

I think I figured out what happened......I had a brief power interruption in which time Mach must have lost it's reference and would not Home because it did not know where to go. Had to "Set Home" again manually. That's the only way I could make it happen again, shut it down then restart.

Hope to submit a photo soon, maybe a short video.

Thanks again