How to load stock to a machine

Hi Everyone,

Hope that people can help me on my way.

At the current moment I am building a FLA100 with Mach3 and getting closer to try and load my first piece of material onto the machine.

I did a lot of reading but have not found the answer I am looking for.
The question is: How do you load material onto your machine? I understand that I can set the Z to a zero hight.

What do you do with the x and y. I know you can zero them but it is more how do you make sure it is strait on the machine?

Any ones help is greatly appreciated.
If my question is not clear I still hope to hear from you and I will try and explain.

Gerrald

There are a bunch of different ways but you could cut some alignment lines in your spoil board with a V cutter, drill some holes in your spoil board and use dowels to push your stock up to, screw down some wood and mill the edge, Surface your spoil board and leave a lip to align your stock to on the X and Y....

In stock that I know I don't have much clearance on I'll use a V bit to set my X and Y zero.

After placing your stock on the machine in the proper orientation (by using guidelines on your spoilboard, or index points attached to your spoilboard, or some other solution), you'll need to assign zero values to your x, y, and z axes. There are many ways to do this. I used to set "z" zero to the top of my stock and "x" and "y" zeros to the bottom left corner of my stock. I now find it more convenient for me to set the x and y zeros to the center of my stock and continue to set z zero to the top of my stock. As you do this a bit, you figure out what works best for you.

Guys,

Thank you very much.

This really help to get me going!

Gerrald

A lot depends on your workpiece or what you're trying to cut. I also usually use X,Y at center for msot one-off jobs, or when I'm using a piece cut to rough size (about 1/8" around) that will get trimmed. For most sheet goods I'll zero X,Y bottom left corner. Zero could also be a hole in a fixture; I have a couple jobs set up with Zero at left centerline. I also did an engravong on a live edge plank that was jointed straight on the right side, and Zeroed the X,Y at top right.

For lining things up, there are some great suggestions already posted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by louieatienza

A lot depends on your workpiece or what you're trying to cut. I also usually use X,Y at center for msot one-off jobs, or when I'm using a piece cut to rough size (about 1/8" around) that will get trimmed. For most sheet goods I'll zero X,Y bottom left corner. Zero could also be a hole in a fixture; I have a couple jobs set up with Zero at left centerline. I also did an engravong on a live edge plank that was jointed straight on the right side, and Zeroed the X,Y at top right.

For lining things up, there are some great suggestions already posted.

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Thank you very much.