Ajax DM45NC Mill

[cncsnw]

The control homes to Machine Zero, but (by default) DRO positions are displayed relative to Part Zero.

Therefore, as a rule, you will not see X0 Y0 Z0 on the DRO when it finishes homing.

If for some reason you need to see Machine Coordinates (distance from Machine Zero) on the DRO, press Alt-D to switch. To return to the normal display of Local Coordinates (distance from Part Zero), press Alt-D again.

[diycncscott]

I believe you are confusing "part position" with "machine position".

If using the "auto home" feature - letting the machine find the limit switch and then backing off to the index pulse for each axis, then "machine position" for each each axis is 0.0000 at the home position. What is displayed on the screen after homing is not the "machine position", it's the "part position", aka a Work Coordinate System.

Zeroes for a part position/WCS are typically set somewhere near the middle of travel for the X & Y axes and at the top of the part for the Z axis.

More info is available here: http://www.centroidcnc.com/video_milltrain_index.html

[SEK22Hornet]

Ok - thanks guys - I am a total newbie on CNC milling, so I appreciate the feedback. Just got the machine fully powered up yesterday, so getting a lot closer to actually running something on as opposed to just playing with it.

Dan

[SEK22Hornet]

ajaxscott - thanks for the link! That is exactly what I needed to get started!

[cnckeith]

machine home is not part zero, the DRO is telling you how far away from part zero the machine is sitting at. also called a "Work Coordinate"

[SEK22Hornet]

Thanks everyone - I understand the difference now and have actually gone through the set up of both machine zero and part zero. The machine I have worked with in the past (CNC punch and bed router) did not use separate machine and part zeros. thanks again - Dan

[SEK22Hornet]

Ok - I don't have a problem homing the mill in the X and Z axis -there are marker plates that tell me where to jog too - however, there does not seem to be a marker for the Y axis - If I try homing it at about the center of travel, I keep getting y axis out of range on line XX messages with even a 3" move - where should I be homing the Y axis to?

[cnckeith]

try with the saddle flush with the bed. if you look in the software travel limits section of the cnc software..that would be a big hint as to where the home position is set to.
if the Y axis travel limit is set to a negative number..then i would suspect that the home position would be the saddle flush with the bed in the front of the machine (closet to you if you are standing in front of the machine)
if the software travel limits have not been set (0 value) just start using the saddle flush to the bed.

[SEK22Hornet]

Looks like I have figured out the homing and actually wrote a couple simple programs and ran them using the on board CAM. Just wondered if the version of software I have (1.02) would recognize a USB stick in stead of the floppy? Anyone here know? I'd need to get an extension, since the port is not easy to get to on the internal PC. Thanks for all the help guys - Dan

[cncsnw]

No, USB support was not added until version 1.20 or 1.21.

If you are going to update, you would either go to 2.38 (the last version slim enough to run with 128MB of memory), or add memory and go to version 2.72 (the current CNC10 release). Version 2.72 (and all versions since 2.60) use a slightly newer Linux installation, with broader support for different USB flash drives.