Manual Tool Changing...

Problems and questions
1

I have set sheetcam to park the tool at Y0, X150 which brings it nicely to the front and centre of my mini-mill.

Mach3 seems to lock the axes when tool-changing so how to handle the Z axis ?

When parked for tool-change the Z is at my rapid height of 20mm above the material, but it looks like the park commands are in work coordinates not machine coordinates so telling the Z to go to say 100 would not work if i have less than 100 spare Z height (thick workpiece etc) If it was in machine co-ords, i could tell it to go to Z0 (machine is homed with max Z = Z0) but there is no G53 in there.

Whats a good way to get the tool to go to abs/machine Z0 for manual changing ?

Or have i completely missed a point ?
:slight_smile:

2

Sorted :smiley:

Use the “run code before tool change” box and enter

G53 Z0 F1500

Works perfectly

3

It would be safer to use
G53 G1 Z0 F1500
or
G53 G0 Z0

If you don’t explicitly specify the motion type Mach3 will use the last move command. As you can’t be absolutely sure what motion was commanded just before the tool change it is better to specify exactly what you want.

4

Learning all time


Thanks Les