[Schmink]

I am a new owner of a Milltronics Partner 1. I have everything hooked up and running. I use Bob-Cad to design and download my programs to the CNC mill. When I run my program I can set my X and Y axis but I am having trouble setting my Z depth for my tool height which ends up starting above my part approximately 1/2" above my part. I would appreciate any help I can get. Thankyou

[allen mullis]

Go to parameters, coordinates, check your g54 Z coordinate and make sure you don't have it set to anything other than zero. You may use that parameter to make global height adjustments, or for example if you have a sub program using g56 you may adjust for fixture height difference.

[Schmink]

Thankyou for your response Allen. I tried that and it made no difference. I even went as far as to put in a -.5" in the Z coordinate and it still made no difference.

[Schmink]

I have the subset set to 0 as well. Would that have anything to do with it?

[chipsinpan]

maybe obvious , but are you sure your are specifying a tool #
what tool does the control think is in the spindle ?

[Schmink]

I am specifying it as tool #1 then I entered the tool diameter. I can get it to work when i set the tool depth and then re-enter it .5" deeper and it works fine. I have not tried it with a tool change in the same program yet to see if the next tool starts .5" higher. I will have to try that, but i would like to get it set up properly.
.

[chipsinpan]

X and Y are table coordinates , but Z is for tool lengths , so they have to be set for each tool . Does the readout display change when you enter the tool # and offset length?
Try to MDI a P260=1 enter / cycle start this tells the control that tool #1 is active . By the way , if you are using a drill as the tool , the tool diameter really doesnt matter .
Dia or CC ( cutter comp) is only a factor when using an end mill where the dia is comped

[Brian L]

What does your program look like? It needs a T01 M06 G43 H1 line to call up tool #1 and activate the offset for tool #1, at the end of that tool you need to cancel the tool offset, a few ways to do that, either a G49, or you can call G32 (Z to tool change position), or your next tool call of M06 should cancel the current offset and go to the next one, but I don't like rely on that if you don't have another tool call at the end of the program your last tool might still be active.

[Schmink]

First off I want to say thanks for the response. It is awesome to have a site such as CNC Zone for us beginners. Now, I think I may have figured it out. I went into Parm/Tool and added .5" to the tool length and that seemed to do the trick. It moved down to my to .1" above the part as needed. Now i am going to run a program with a tool change and see if it works then.

[sportybob]

Hi Schmink. If you set the Z tool with the hand wheel it will "ask" you for the position. This will set the tool # and Z position for that tool #. ( should be zero at the top of the part) unless you are using a "touch off block)
If you had to add .5" to the tool length, you did not set your tool length correctly or you have a Z offset in Z axis for the G5X coordinates.

sportybob