Hi Guys im trying to set up a and save a home position and recall the G55/56 positions stored and reference to when setting up repetitive jobs, unfortunately my machine has not got home switches , is this possible .I have tried to set these up in Mach 3 but when the program is re-started i loose the settings
kind regards Jon

maybe it helps:

http://forum.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,11409.0.html

With NO home switches setup simply move to where you want Home to be then press the Ref Home All button.

(;-) TP

so i assume without home switches Mach 3 will be unable to store G55 through G58 fixtures to call upon when setting up different  jigs  in different areas on the table
TPS ill give the idea a go
BR549 this would be like manually choosing an xyz reference point for a 1 off job and zero out am i wrong  ? but if i carry out a job to a  jig   i cant recall the initial settings for that jig
Its a steep learning curve and the hill is getting steeper 

You can not recall G5x offsets because these offsets are referenced to machine zero. Without home switches you can not establish  machine zero accurately.

 " Without home switches you can not establish  machine zero accurately. "

SURE you can. The simplest way is to bump teh XY axis up against a hardstop then press teh Ref Home buttons. THAT will set the machine zero for X and Y. From there you can set G5x offsets to where ever you need them. They will remain accurate until you shut down Mach3. When you restart simply bump teh XY against teh stops and ref home again.

Easy Peaszy, (;-) TP

Hi,
referencing or homing your machine means jogging it to a particular location and then setting the machine coordinates
to (usually) zero. As Terry points out you can just jog the machine to the end-stops and call that home......OR you can
drive the machine until home switches make and call that home. It achieves exactly the same thing and is actually very simple.

Is there any reason that you don't fit home switches?

When I got around to fitting roller plunger microswitches for homing....it was the best and cheapest upgrade I've ever made to my mill.
In the early days I used to suffer a few crashes. In the four years since fitting home switches I've crashed once.

Its real nice to be able to stop a job part way and then come back tomorrow, home to my switches (within 0.02mm) and restart the job
from where I left off......no measuring this or touching off to that......really nice and easy.

Craig

Hi Craig the machine was built for me in poland , a very reliable machine i might add but without switches fitted . I have progressed from simply jogging to my xy and z and zeroing out and need to set a jig to cut multiple blanks , as you can imagine this is near on impossible without an accurate home position to reference from to the same point each time . I understand the importance of these switches however my knowledge of fitting them isnt quite as good as my hands on experience in the building trade . I assume its straight forward and maybe i need to contact the supplier with regards to pins to connect to ? i dont honestly have a clue