Newbie- Dont laugh at me

[dave6]

I am trying to find program 0 on my lathe. I have set up all my tools as per the manual using the chuck face as Z 0 which gives me a negative number from my home 0 location. I have put a G 54 dimension in the work coord. of 6" to bring program Z 0 out 6" from the chuck face, I have also tried -6" with no luck. The machine thinks program 0 is like 35" away and it gets worse every time I try it. Is there an incremental /absolute problem going on here? I have a small slant bed lathe with the Meldas L3 control. Teach me! Please

[chucker]

Try this
touch all of your tools off the chuck to get your geomerty offset (tool lenghts) then set your g54 to zero go to MDI call up Key in G54 T101 (or what ever tool you want) hit cycle start now move the leading edge of your tool to the face of your part then take the number in your Z abs readout and put it in to your G54 register that should set Z program zero to the face of your part you will have to add -.03 or so to the Z G54 to get it to face some off of your part.

[dave6]

Thanks for the idea. OK I tried that with no luck. What does the MDI entry do,and where should the tool be when the MDI entry is done? How do you find where the machine zero is (the one that is supposed to be around the face of the chuck not the home zero)? Also does the program code need to call up G54 or is it assumed. Thanks for your help...