[flewggle]

Im researching these desktop cnc's. Ive noticed lately manufacturers putting limit switch on the x, y and z axis. Most of these machines dont have limit switches. My question is what do they do? Whats the advantage of having limit switches on the x y and z axis?

[CNCMAN172]

limit switches serve a fun functions on a typical machine. The first is they protect the hardware by disabling the machine if it is tries to go beyond it normal work limits. For example if you created some gcode that told the machine to travel to X=9" and you table had a physical limit of 8". Instead of possibly damaging the ballscrew, nut, or assembly the machine just stops when it hits the limit switch. The second purpose on some limit switches is they can be programmed in the CNC software to act as a homing switch. When you start you machine you tell the cnc software to reference all axis and it will home the X, Y, Z axis which tells the machine you are at absolute 0,0,0. This is important if you machine crashes on a job. You can re-home the machine which brings it in alignment and then run the program again and it will all line up perfectly.

Russ