Getting to my first print

I have my machine pretty much complete, and I’ve started working with estlcam and easel. What I’m wondering is, once I have my gcode ready, bit mounted, and work piece clamped in place, what other steps do I have to do before turning on the spindle and saying “go”? I’m guessing that I would need to have some way to tell the machine where 0,0 or home or something is and where the top of the work piece is - probably some other stuff, too. Is there someplace I can go to learn what these other steps are?

Thanks!

Karl

Nope. The machine thinks where ever you start it is 0, 0, 0.
Super easy, makes you wonder why everyone uses endstops…

Thanks Ryan!

I plan to use endstops just to prevent collisions at the extremes of the axes, just in case I get something wrong in the gcode, or manually try to move too far.

I have a couple of questions:

I understand that 0,0 is the starting point for the cut - is this the center of the design, or is it one of the corners?

I would like the tool to begin in the upper left corner of the machine and return there when finished. Is this referred to as “home”? Or is it “0,0”?

Thanks again for any help. I’m anxious to get to my first cut, but I need to solve this and my z axis problem first.

The starting point is where ever you put it in your CAM software. Generally it is the lower right corner but it does not matter.

0,0,0= x,y,z
It is home, I try not to use that word because people tend to try and the hit the home button, if your aren’t using endstops this can be bad.