I've been using MachTurn for several years but have just yesterday tried to make use of the tool tables. I've spent nearly 20 straight hours trying to make a run of 20 parts with three tools and am getting nowhere. Can someone point out what I'm doing wrong? Here is what I'm trying to do.
I set tool#1 in the tool window and I reference this tool to my part with skim cuts in x and z by setting the appropriate dro's on the manual screen. Then I put in tool#2 and I go to the offsets window where I set #2 in the tool number window and reference this tool to the same x and z surfaces. I press the 'touch' buttons which store the x and z offsets in the tool table. I look in the tool table and the offsets are there for t2 and zero for t1 as expected. I do the same thing for tool#3. I run the program and everything runs as expected. Then I put in a new workpiece and the problems start. I set tool#1 in the tool number dro on the manual page again and then I proceed to take skim cuts again on x and z and I reference the new surfaces in the dro's on the manual screen again. I realize doing the x again is likely redundant. Now when I restart the program, tool number one will not start cutting in the proper place in either x or z or both. I can try referencing tool#1 again and after several tries the tool may or may not start cutting in the proper place. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. It seems to only be t1 that has the problem. Once it is in the right place, the other tools are invariably correct. I've never had to re-reference t2 or t3. Can anyone tell me where I should be looking to fix this. Restarting Mach will let me re-reference t1 to the new workpiece but it seems I shouldn't need to do this every time is insert a new workpiece. - Terry