Quote Originally Posted by cyclestart View Post
My wood cutting cnc machine uses a hardware store router. I think of the tool length as unrepeatable when changing tools. or at least I've never bothered trying to make the tool stick out the same distance every time.
I work without tool length offsets, just work piece (G5x) offsets xyz. No G43 and no tool table. Each tool gets it's own program and each tool change requires a touch off to update of G5x Z.
It's not a sophisticated method but it's brain-dead simple and reliable.
If someone is learning then they should do it to a normal G-Code format, then it will match there cam software, if they ever need or decide to take a job in a machine shop they are ahead of the game and will fit right in