10-22-24 UPDATE! CNC12 v5.20 has been released Mill, Lathe, Router, Plasma is now available for public testing.

[cncsnw]

To be compliant with many of the OEM router table mfgrs there should be an adjustment to allow setting the machine home to the physical table corner. I have been using a custom HOM file to do this (see 1st attachment below) Is there a better way?

Can we add this to the Wizard Homing setup page?

Agreed. I think I mentioned this some time back and got a "It's on the list". Maybe it fell off the bottom of the list, happens to me sometimes.
viewtopic.php?p=88741#p88741

I am curious: why does this matter?

Parts are cut from part zero, not machine zero.

"Park" goes wherever the park macro tells it to go, not necessarily to machine zero.

G28 goes to the G28 position, which is not necessarily machine zero.

Why is it important to have machine zero at the corner of the work surface, and not just in front of the homing switches?

[Gary Campbell]

It's a router table thing. Most likely based on the fact that many, maybe even most, commercial router machines have been setup that way. It's a feature that was on the list I provided before there was even a router version.

In the router table world, parts are cut from sheets that are located at "table zero".

It's not something that mill-centric operators would understand. The work flow is substantially different when sheet cutting vs. machining. 90% of router operators seldom use more than one WCS. In my shop cutting days I would routinely cut upwards of 30 sheets per day, sometimes more. Large industrial machines have close to double that thru put.

From my perspective it's a feature that virtually every one of my customers ask for. It's also a feature that is "baked into the cake" of all the other control softwares that I have used.

[RogDC]

I agree with Gary's comments for Router based machining and I think what he is suggesting is a great idea.

My personal preference is to have the machine home to the right rear corner so the table is clear to set up stock to machine. Saves time from having to move the gantry out of the way when the table home position is left front with the limit switches.

However I am one of the 10 percenters and use WCS quite frequently.

[ShawnM]

As a router guy I also agree with Gary and also have a custom .HOM file for this move and other things. One of my machines has pneumatic pop up pins to help locate and square sheet goods to the exact corner of the table which is always "part" zero. Machine zero is several inches outside the actual vacuum table.

I do still home my machine to the front, left of the table. Here I can do a quick inspection of the spindle and make sure it's ready for the spindle warm up procedure. I have the HSD spindle warm up procedure as part of my .HOM file to save another step. I have a button on the VCP for "load sheet" that quickly moves the gantry out of the way whereas RogDC just homes out of the way. I'm not always cutting full sheets so having it home to the front makes more sense for me. If you home to the rear and you are cutting a small part then you still have that long move back to the front of the table. We all have different routines and workflow for sure.

[cncsnw]

It's a router table thing. Most likely based on the fact that many, maybe even most, commercial router machines have been setup that way. It's a feature that was on the list I provided before there was even a router version.

In the router table world, parts are cut from sheets that are located at "table zero".

It's not something that mill-centric operators would understand. The work flow is substantially different when sheet cutting vs. machining. 90% of router operators seldom use more than one WCS.

So why not just set your one WCS (say, G54) at the desired "table zero" location?

If every job runs from that same zero point, then you only have to set it once.

Since jobs run in local (WCS) coordinates, you have to set your WCS zero correctly anyway. Why does the WCS zero have to be at machine zero?

[suntravel]

I am with Marc, probably because I am reading manuals

Uwe

[ShawnM]

I am with Marc, probably because I am reading manuals

Uwe

This thing come with a manual?

[Gary Campbell]

So why not just set your one WCS (say, G54) at the desired "table zero" location?

I agree, in fact that is what I put in my "startup manual" along with a suggestion to lock the G54 WCS. That said, I get a request from the vast majority of my router customers to mod the homing routine.

Personally, it doesn't matter to me as my last machine was a Bridgeport Series ll SE, so I really appreciated multiple WCS.

I don't expect the request to make sense to mill guys, as they are trained differently on different types of machines. It does seem to make a difference to router guys, especially those that are replacing an existing controller, many of them over a decade old.

It should make a difference to Centroid if they are sincere in their efforts to truly provide a Router version that works like a router.

[Sword]

Nah, it's just a millhead vs routerhead thing. When we (routerheads) are at home, we're truly home, not sitting at the end of the driveway!

Seriously though, both ways work, and I run the "at switch" way with two benchtop routers, but with my larger machine, I prefer to be at the true table home for machine home. I then leave/lock G54 there for those times when I do sheet goods, and all other WCS #s are for offcuts, hardwood blanks, or specialized jigs. Some users may have a grid layout, and use that for part alignment.

I don't know how Avid users set up their machines, but I'm guessing that they use a table corner location as their machine home, and with the new adoption of Centroid/Acorn by Avid, it would be a plus for the router version for them.

If you've ever had to teach someone that is replacing an existing controller about machine and work coordinates, and that they can have several work coordinates locations saved, and switch to any of them at will, when it's something that is completely foreign to them, you soon get to the point where you say "Yep, this here is 0,0 and everywhere else isn't but can be, just like before.

[cnckeith]

i always send them here.
https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusio ... made-easy/

and i need to continue to work on this document but at least it is a start that covers the basics
https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... rement.pdf