its me again....LOL

ok i got this machine operating great...but not completely under my control just yet....

the UNITS and MEASUREMENTS are creating me headaches..but thats for another day

ok picture this if you will

a small TROPHY ENGRAVING PLATE...70mmx17mm....anondised aluminuim...

ok so i place that plate on the cnc bed...thats no problem....

my problem is

CENTERING THE G CODE FILE so it fits exactly within the bounderies of the Trophy Plate

here is a 3 line example...

MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB
    BEST & FAIREST 2012
          TOM JONES

so now,,,how do i tell the cnc machine to engrave this CENTRAL onto the Trophy Plate...

i know now how to jog to a certain position and reset the axis to zero....but i guess i need to know exactly what point the first mark of engraving is to occur so as to be able to set the placement on the trophy plate

hmmmmm am i making any sense here or just going around in circles

either way....can anyone offer some advice

much appreciated

Hi Belin,

I am perhaps bit of an oddball in the way I do things but I set-up the CAD/CAM engraving work with the X and Y zero's (datum) at the centre of the work.
It is easy enough to locate the centre of the first blank by pencil drawing corner to corner diagonals, the blank is then located on a vacuum table in a corner jig and the centre located by a small laser cross-hair. The Mach3 DRO's are then zeroed and engraving then begins, replacing the finished work with a new blank in the jig, the batch is then completed.

There are many threads here on the forum which discuss various methods and a search should reveal the details but, if it's any help, there is a description of what I have done here http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/files/17.htm

Tweakie.

Your a genius TWEAKIE...but we will keep that quiet...

by constantly playing around with Jogging and Resetting the axis

I HAD A WIN....

my problem was that i had the TABLE SIZE LIMITS in Homing/Limits set to large...like for the full table size which would be ok if your doing a job of that size

but if your job is only a small percentage of the table size....it makes it difficult to actually VIEW your job on the screens....

so all i did was reset the table size to ")" and BONGO..

i can see the project clearly and simply by jogging and resetting axis.....well IT WORKS....

Take a Bow Twealie

 

Tweakie.