[lostinacrowd]

Hello,
I'm pretty new to running CNC mills. We have a Haas mill. My normal mode of operation is to use a Renishaw probe to set my XYZ for G54, then run the program I created with Solidworks. The problem I'm having is that I broke the probe tip so I manually moved my tool 5 to my part, slowly closed in on a piece of paper until it was trapped and then in the offset table I set my Z zero. When I go to run the program though it's cutting air above the part
.
My guess is that there's an offset that I'm missing when I'm zeroing. My Gcode does say to use G43 for tool 5 before it runs the cuts. My tool offsets were all set using a Renishaw tool probe.

When the code for setting Z runs during the Renishaw routine is it doing something special to make the offsets for the tools match the offsets that were measured with the tool probe or something?

Should I be setting G54 H05 first, then finding zero for G54? Subtracting out the offset somehow? I need to be set straight here.

My old CNC would just take the Z I put in when doing the paper drag, then I just run it. But now I have a tool changer and the tool offsets are based on the probe height? I suspect it factors in the probe height when measuring so I thought I could just go for it. I do know that when I change tools I have to run a G43 first if I want my new tool to sit at the same Zs that the previous tool did.

A quick way I could get around this is to set my G54 Z height to 0 and then zero my tool offset height after putting the tool at where I want my Z zero to be based on my program. I feel like I don't need to do that if I just understand what's going on though.

If someone could please explain some basics here to me about what's going on that would be great. I'm almost there, but there's a lack of fundamental knowledge so I can't quite get there.
Thanks!

[lostinacrowd]

So, is the answer use G44 instead of G43? My offset tool lengths are positive numbers so I think that's it. I'll go check... 5% rapids!

[mactec54]

So, is the answer use G44 instead of G43? My offset tool lengths are positive numbers so I think that's it. I'll go check... 5% rapids!

You should never have to us a G44

The problem you have is you have used the prob, and then did a manual tool set, to do a manual tool set in Z axes, the G54 X----Y---- Z0 axis would need to be zero, and in the Tool offset page is where you set the tool offset (tool to the top of the part) this will then be used by the G43

Manual Tool set
So your G54 X-----Y------Z0
Tool offset page set tool T5------ Top of the part

[lostinacrowd]

Yes, that G44 didn't do it for me. It makes sense now though thanks!