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Cutting thin air
« on: September 24, 2021, 09:43:36 PM »
Hello.  I am a newbie at CNC, and this is my first post to the forum.  I am trying some basic operations on a brand new AvidCNC Benchtop Pro.  I have developed a very basic design in Fusion360 for a spoilboard.  I can successfully load them to Mach 4, but when I run the program it moves as expected in the X and Y axes, but about 1.5 inches from the surface of my material.  I have repeatedly used a touch plate to set all 3 axes, but I can't get the Z where I need it.
I'm pretty sure there is something pretty basic I'm omitting or doing wrong, but I can't seem to figure it out.  Any help will be much appreciated!

Offline Graham Waterworth

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Re: Cutting thin air
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2021, 09:45:26 AM »
Where is the cutting face in Fusion (Z) have you worked minus when it should be plus or vice versa

Without engineers the world stops
Re: Cutting thin air
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2021, 04:20:22 PM »
Z=0 should be the surface of the material. If you want to cut into the material a quarter inch you should set the final depth of cut to -0.250 (minus 0.250) in the mop. Anything below the surface of the material is a negative number. Your clearance plane should always be a positive number and set at a height so your cutter wont hit the material or the screws and clamps that hold it.

Offline Bill_O

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Re: Cutting thin air
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2021, 11:42:04 AM »
If Fusion puts in tool information that can also be a problem.
Different tools at different heights.
Re: Cutting thin air
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2021, 08:20:25 PM »
Thanks everyone.  Mach4 was running just fine, I had made a horrible mess of my heights in Fusion, and as Graham suggested, was moving away from the piece rather than into it!