Can't find where Z values are coming from

[marsheng]

I'm milling details in a aly sheet
My jig holds the part 50 mm above the table and the material is 1.5 mm thick as setup in the Job Options. .
I will set my machine Z 0.0 to be the top of the material.

When I run the post processor, I have a Z of 121.5. Where does this come from ?

N0040 M06 T6
N0050 G00 Z121.5
N0060 M03 S3500
N0070 M08 (FLOOD ON)

I normally have Z on the surface and machine -ve into the material.

See attached files.

[marsheng]

I have got a bit further and found that under Machine Options/Post Processor, I needed to tick Z Zero = Top of work.
Now my Z has reduced to 70 from 120 (50 mm - Material thickness)

Still not sure where the 70 comes from.

[Les Newell]

Looking at your job file you have a tool length offset defined for your tool. This is added to the overall Z height.

[marsheng]

Thanks Les

Ok I can see where I got this wrong. When you look at the graphic for Tool Length offset, it looks like Tool overall length.

Another note is that the program does not remember the storage location of the tool set. Is this because the tool table is saved against the job ? I see this save location is an Application option but I I only have one toolset so it would be nice to have a default location.

By the same reasoning, I think the save Machine options should also be a default directory.

I have 2 machines and it would be nice if all machine operations and tools were saved to say a default machine directory.

[Les Newell]

The default tool set is always saved in the settings folder. The same goes for the default machine options.