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Author Topic: Mach 4 Lathe Homing Best Practices & Help Needed  (Read 1174 times)

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Mach 4 Lathe Homing Best Practices & Help Needed
« on: September 16, 2018, 07:14:36 PM »
Ho all,

So I managed to get an X-axis limit switch installed and working. I also managed to set it up as a homing switch so I figured out that bit. But I do have an issue.

The limit switch I installed is on the X maximum - so when the carriage is the farthest away from the workpiece axis. To my way of thinking, the home position should be *away* from the work. Not only is that safer in general, but it strikes me that if something were to happen mid-job (power failure, lost steps, etc) that the ability to home the machine with a workpiece still fixtured up would be super useful.

However, when I hit the "reference X" button, the machine started traveling in the other direction - towards the workpiece. So that must not be standard practice.

There must be a way to tell Mach 4 to home to X Max, and there must be a way to tell Mach 4 that X Max is N many units away from zero, so that homing to X Max sets machine zero.

How do I do this?
Re: Mach 4 Lathe Homing Best Practices & Help Needed
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2018, 08:43:18 AM »
In the control configuration under the homing/softlimits tab.  You can choose the homing direction either Positive or Negative.  It is the first option in that tab.
Chad Byrd
Re: Mach 4 Lathe Homing Best Practices & Help Needed
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2018, 10:15:35 AM »
Found it, thanks!

And there's the offset too... AHA!

OK, so what is the best practice for setting this main offset to play with tool tables and tool offsets?

So for the sake of discussion, assume the limit switch trips at X = 6.000. Assume the master tool for the tool post is 2 inches long. Is it better to set the homing offset to 3.00, bring the reference to zero, and then set a negative tool offset to locate the tool edge, or is it better to set the main offset to 0.5 and then use a positive tool offset to locate the tip of the tool?

Re: Mach 4 Lathe Homing Best Practices & Help Needed
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2018, 10:54:37 AM »
Check out this video for setting tools in Mach4 Lathe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDuZWZHVU0s
Chad Byrd