[cromag27]

using cnc shark hd3 with cut2d. first time using a cnc so i'm not sure if i'm doing this correctly. posting this here because the cut2d forum is dead and i'm not sure this is a software-specific issue?

material is 1/4" acrylic so i set the material to .250 and cut depth to .253 so i can cut all the way through. i create my design, load it into the next wave software, set the "home" using their touch plate, start the job and the machine will trace out my design but the bit stays about 1" above the material and doesn't touch it.

not sure if this will help, but here's the top part of the gcode:

( test_250 )
( File created: Sunday August 27 2017 - 10:44 AM)
( for CNC Shark from Vectric )
( Material Size)
( X= 3.500, Y= 3.500, Z= 0.253)
( Z Origin for Material  = Material Surface)
( XY Origin for Material = Top Left Corner)
(      XY Origin Position  = X:0.000, Y:0.000)
( Home Position)
(  X =  X0.0000 Y =  Y0.0000 Z =  Z0.1010)
( Safe Z = 0.100)

[mikeyd895]

only a guess cause I'm new at this too
but if your zeroing on top of the acrylic your cutting on the z plane needs to be a negative number

[RCaffin]

Z must go negative as Mikey said.

Cheers
Roger