I am new to Mach3 and have a question about Home Off. In an earlier .pdf version of Mach3 Turn, in Section 7.3 (Referencing) there is a write-up describing how to set Home Off. In the most recent version of Turn, this section seems to have been removed.

1) Any idea why?
2) My more basic question if why would you need Home Off. even if you have Home switches installed? Is it so that you do not need to reference X (on a lathe) each time you set up a part?
3) I had set up my Tool Table with no HO - I assume, that if I have a Home Off. value entered in Homing/Limits, I would need to redo my Tool Table?

Thanks

Hi j2mariashop ,

the " Home Off " in Config >Homing/Limits is used to set up your machine coordinate system.
Normally there is a difference between the position of the reference ( homing ) switch and the machine coordinate system.
This will be set in  " Home Off "
To point 3. This depends on your system Mill / Lathe ...
The machine normally needs only the reference ( homing ) when its turned on. That shows the controller ( Mach ) the position of the axis.
When everything is ok there is no need to reference it again.
Your part will be set up in the Fixtures.

hope that helps a little.
Alex

Hi Alex

Thanks for getting back. My understanding after having experimented with Home Off. is that once you input a Home Off. value in Homing Limits, and click Part Zero X so that now the axis and part DROs have the same Home Off value (Auto Zero set), then you do not need to phyically take a skim cut of the dia of the part that is in the chuck and input into the Part X DRO. All you need to do is Part Zero the Z axis on the lathe and you are set.  So, the main advantage of Home Off is removing the need for this step. Correct?

As for the tool tables: my understanding is that since all offsets are set relative to the master tool, once the master with Home off values has been referenced to Part X zero as I wrote above, all other tools should be correctly positioned. Correct?

Thanks for the help.

Joe

Hi Joe,
if I understand you right ( my english may be better ) I would say yes.

Alex

Thanks Alex.