So I am really new to this and I just finished putting my lead 1010 together and it is working awesome. I went through the homing process and hello world exercise without router attached. How do I know I have the work piece in the right position?
you put it where you want it and then you tell the machine where it is. let me back up a bit....... machines have a home position, which is set when it runs the homing cycle (or when it turns on if there are no homing switches). that is the 'Machine Coordinate System' or MCS. the software also keeps track of 6 other coordinate systems known as work coordinate systems, or WCS. These are stored in the controller as offsets from the MCS. They are selected by the Gcodes G54 to G59, and the default is G54 (ignore the others...). You set the WCS by clicking one of the buttons in OpenbuildsCONTROL labelled 'setzero' on the left side. so, the process is: mount the work (I use the masking tape and superglue method). obviously the exact position depends on the size of the raw material and the size of the job being done, just make sure the machine has enough room to move to all parts of the job from the start position, and that is a good place to put it. insert the tool (unplug router! fast spinning, super sharp carbide bits take fingers right off!) jog the tool to the 0,0,0 position on the workpiece (ignore the numbers displayed on the screen). you can see where this is for this job in the 3D previewer, the 0,0 of the axes will be at the jobs 0,0,0 position (usually bottom left corner but sometimes the center of the job)r. So jog and set X and Y, then use the paper method to set the Z 0 position. NOW the numbers on the screen must display as 0,0,0. jog Z up a bit turn on router run the job. turn off router it is best to do your first test cuts in insulation foam. in this stuff feeds and speeds and even router speed does not matter and it will pretty much always work and breaking a bit will be unusual (not impossible, but unusual).
