hi people im new here , iv seen a lot of videos on YouTube about using a touch plate but its always used from the work surface , that by its self is fine for a lot of what i want to do but the rest requires some how to set my piece from the bed but i cant find what i need to learn about this unless i just don’t know what im looking for which is most likely . ill include a video i found on YouTube so you can understand what im trying to describe and if im breaking any rules by doing this i do apologize but a couple of the awkward pieces i want to do are coins and badges which means there is no true flat surface as you are about to see in the video and im trying to fine out how i can set my tool on the tool change using a touch plate from the bed whilst the mpcnc can carry on engraving the part which would be higher than the surface used to set the tool . i hope this video explains better what im trying to say and any help would greatly be appreciated and thanks in advance . here is the video of what i mean with the tool change . just found i cant include links but on YouTube its called cnc engraving on brass and he does the tool change from the bed on there
It somewhat depends on the tool you’re using to generate your gcode. You need to tell that tool to generate the gcode with the understanding that the Z-axis zero position is your machine’s bed, not the top of your workpiece.
In Estlcam you can find that setting under Setup-> Basic Settings. Change Z-Axis Origin to Machine Bed.
If you’re using something other than Estlcam to generate the gcode, you’ll need to figure out how to set the equivalent in that software.
Hope that helps.
thanks ever so much buddy im still in the process of building my machine at the moment and i was just trying to find out how to do this tricky part before i finish it , ill try to find that program as iv got fusion on my laptop at the moment but thanks for the info
Don’t forget, when you set machine zero at the bed, you need to make sure you measure your material height before generating your code.