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Save a head position and come back to it

A spot on the bed you can send the head back to exactly, tomorrow, without finding it again by eye.

3steps 1settings explained

Before you start

Anybody using a jig, a fixture, or a corner of the bed they keep returning to.

  • The machine connected and homed.
1

Find the spot once, carefully

Jog the head to the position you want to keep. Take your time: everything you do with this afterwards is only as good as this one placement.

If it is the corner of a jig, put the head on the corner itself rather than near it.

2

Save it, and give it a name you will recognise

Save the position and call it what it is: the jig, the left corner, the rotary. Not position one. In three weeks position one means nothing and the jig still means the jig.

3

Send the head back whenever you need it

Choosing a saved position moves the head there. Because it is stored against the machine's own home corner, it is the same place after the machine has been switched off and on, as long as it homed.

It is not the same place if somebody moved the head by hand without homing afterwards. When in doubt, home it first.

Every setting, and what it does

1

In the order you meet them. The second line on each is what goes wrong when it is set badly, which is usually the more useful half.

Position name

Name for this position

Starts at origin

How to know it worked

  • Sending the head back lands it on the same spot you saved.
  • It still lands there after the machine has been switched off and homed again.

When it goes wrong

2
It goes to the wrong place after a restart.

The machine did not home, or somebody moved the head by hand. Home it and try again.

It is a few millimetres out.

You saved it after jogging fast, and read the backlash into the saved figure. Save it again, approaching slowly.

The tools this used

Save head position

Remember a spot on the bed so you can send the head back to it later.

Measure between two points

Check the real distance between two points you marked on the bed.

Find material centre

Put the head in the middle of a part that is not square to the bed.

Jig maker

Cut a board that holds the same parts in the same place every time.