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Author Topic: Setting up part offset in Mach3?  (Read 5247 times)

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Setting up part offset in Mach3?
« on: June 04, 2008, 03:46:26 PM »
In Cut2D program, I create signs that are 20 inches long and 15 inches high. The plywood for the signs are 22-1/4 inches long by 24 inches high. I placed the plywood on my CNC router's table so that its bottom-left corner is 1-1/8 inches to the left of the home position and 2-1/2 inches down from the home position. How do I set up part offset in Mach3 or Cut2D so that the sign is centered on the plywood?

Offline Hood

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Re: Setting up part offset in Mach3?
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2008, 03:57:30 PM »
Simple enough, just make sure your code doesnt call it to go to zero position, edit it if you have to. Then what you do is place the board on your table and set the DROs to where you want to start from. This is hard to explain but easy to do, I will give an example which might help. I made a name board up for a boat out of Aluminium, the x travel on my mill is 18 inch but the sign was 30 long, I placed the board on the table and started machining but had edited a stop in the code halfway through. The first part done and the machine stops, I jogged the axis back to the start position and set this to the DRO reading that it had stopped on. Then I slid the sign along so that the last part cut was under the cutter and pressed cycle start and it continued with the next half.
 Let me know if you see how to do it, if not I will try and do a sketch or something to let you see.
Hood
Re: Setting up part offset in Mach3?
« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2008, 05:02:27 PM »
I thought that I subtract 20 from 22-1/4 to get 2-1/4 and divide by 2 to get 1-1/8, and subtract 15 from 24 to get 9 and divide by 2 to get 4-1/2. Because I moved the playwood 1-1/8 inches to left and 2-1/2 inches down so I should set the part offset at 0,2. Is that right?

Offline Hood

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Re: Setting up part offset in Mach3?
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2008, 05:18:11 PM »
OK what does your code have as the zero position in relation to your part. If its dead centre of the part then you are laughing, if its lower left corner then you need to edit your code so it wont go there, edit it so that the first line is the lowest left of the actual cutting, then just move the cutter to near your lower left of table and set the position of where your cutting starts into the DROs. move your work so its start position is under the cutter.
 I am finding this very hard to explain as there are so many variables. Lets see your code and might help explaining.


Hood
Re: Setting up part offset in Mach3?
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2008, 06:34:42 PM »
In Mach3, I went to the "Offsets" screen and entered "2" in the Y-Axis of "Current Work Offset" coordinates after zeroing the coordinates with the "Ref All Home" and "Machine Coords" buttons. I simulated the run and it worked.