Maybe you guys can tell me if I’m crazy or not or if any of these approaches are a bad idea. Also I am a dead-to-rights rookie, beware these may be very ‘dumb’ questions.
I'm finishing up a retrofit build and am doing calibration/setup for the first time. My goal is to establish enough constants that when I start a new cut all I need to do is home the machine, place the stock onto the bed, line it up against existing studs/dogs and press go.
1: This means that I would have a set constant machine origin for all projects which is just a set offset from the XYZ home coords. Note: I plan to calculate all tool paths with the origin being on the bottom of the stock. So assuming I set my machine Z origin correctly to spoilboard and I don’t have a radical gap in software-to-actual stock it should behave correctly without actually setting Z to actual top-of-stock every time. I recognize that this approach would be the less-accurate approach for Z, and that stock thickness can often be inconsistent, however in the work I’m doing even 2 or 3 mm of unexpected thickness in actual stock is not a big deal.
Q1: Is running a machine origin based on homing alone accurate enough for day after day consistency?
2: My machine has ATC and a fixed touch-off plate. I’ve considered if there is a way to do away with before-every-cut tool touch off. I’d like to set all Z tool offsets in the software in one go on the day I install tools and never after until the next time the tool in a tool holder changes.
Q2: Do you see an issue with doing away with touching off before every cut?
3: My machine is a Multicam MG whose X and Y are reversed from what you might expect. When standing at the ‘front’ of the machine (where branding faces you and the valves for the vacuum table are) X moves the gantry itself and runs away from you, and Y moves L and R in front of you (across the gantry). It makes sense to me to do away with this and change the gantry movement (away and towards you) to be Y and across-gantry movements (L and R) to be X.
Q3: Is there any reason you can think of that this would not be a good idea to change this? Is there a situation in which this original setup is beneficial for some reason?
That’s all. Any other first-time machine setup advice is very welcome!
Best