Hello,
I did what you asked me to. The spindle when up what I assume was 10mm and the DRO showed +10.0000.
Cheers
Peter
 

Hi Peter,

OK, so your Z axis is moving in the correct direction.

As you are zeroing your Z axis at the point that the tool touches the spoil board surface then, in my opinion, you do not need to be applying the G43 tool length offset for your surfacing operation.

Just as a test try deleting the H8 in line N140, so it reads N140G00G43Z50.800. Does this make any difference ?

Tweakie.

Thanks. I will try that in the morning. I am asuming that you are in a different time zone? As we seem to be doing morning / night conversations. I am on the west coast of Canada. Where are you?
Cheers
Peter

Hi Peter,

I am in London UK.

(Obviously Mach has tremendous versatility in its GCode handling but programming in Absolute mode (G90) and using Tool Length Offsets (G43) requires quite a bit of knowledge. As a result I always prefer to program in Incremental mode (G91) and only use G43H# on one particular milling machine. I like to keep everything as simple as possible.)

Tweakie.

Hi Tweakie,
Thanks. I will be honest that last post is a little above my head. I have been doing CNC work for a while, but I had a much smaller machine and used open-source software that worked quite well. I decided to get a bigger machine to make cabinets on. The machine has an ATC and a tool length probe which I need to figure out. I am slowly getting there but the learning curve has been huge. I really appreciate your help. I will try what you suggested. If that works, how do I incorporate the tool length probe into my programs. I am slowly figuring things out, but I am sure I will have more questions going forward.
Cheers
Peter

Hi Peter,

Setting up the Mach3 coordinate system is relatively easy but there is much to learn and certainly more than I could explain here. This tutorial video listed as Coordinate Systems and Homing in Mach3 is probably a good place to start;  https://www.machsupport.com/help-learning/videos-tutorials/ also the Mach2 manual has details along with other documentation published by Artsoft. You will need plenty of time to digest it all but you will get there I am sure.

Hope this helps.

Tweakie.

Hello,
I took out the code H8 and ran the program.It still tried to go through the spoil board or past zero that I set. If anything changed the tool didn't make as deep of an imprint as before. I ran the whole program and watched it. it did surface some small parts of the spoil board. They must have been higher. One thing that I did notice, was that the spindle was supposed to go up to 50.800. It did not. It stayed where it was I think. It looks like it. I just thought of this now I did not pay attention to what the DRO was showing. I can re run the program and watch this if you think this would be helpfull. I am also going to watch some of the mach3 videos. Thanks again for your help.
Cheers
Peter

I was watching the video that you recomended. This is the screen shot of my current settings. It is a little different than the video. I tried to screen shot it but I couldn't get to show here or as an attachment.
On Motor home soft limit screen X Reversed green check, Soft max 1300.00, soft min -1.00, Home Neg red X
Y Reversed green check, soft max 2940.00, soft min -2.00, Home Neg red X
Z Reversed Green check, soft max 1.0, soft min -285.00, Home Neg green check.
I am pretty sure the rest of those setting are how the software comes.
Not sure if this helps.
Thanks Again!

One thing that I did notice, was that the spindle was supposed to go up to 50.800. It did not. It stayed where it was I think. It looks like it. I just thought of this now I did not pay attention to what the DRO was showing. I can re run the program and watch this if you think this would be helpfull.

Hi Peter,

I think it would be helpful if you run this again.

With the H8 removed (as mentioned earlier) and the Z axis zeroed - when you run the Gcode file your Z axis should initially rise by 50.8mm and the DRO should show this.

It is possible that your Z axis could be stalling and loosing steps either due to the Velocity / Acceleration being set too high in Motor Tuning or tightness / binding in the mechanicals or slippage in the drive coupling, etc.

Tweakie.

Hi Peter,

I just noticed something odd which I don't fully understand...

If, on the main screen, you click the To Go button it starts flashing. If you then run your Gcode file it behaves in a strange manner with regard to the Z axis movement. Clicking on this button a second time stops it flashing.

The To Go button is only intended to display (on the DRO's) the distance to go for the current movement but it is doing more than this.

Please check that you do not have the To Go button flashing when you run your Gcode file.

Tweakie.