location of the cutter

[Zburhop]

Hello,
I am using a tormach 1100 with sprutcam. I cannot figure out how to tell the machine where my cutter is. and what depth it needs to be. I am 2d contouring a part in half inch plastic and basically want to set it up where i place the tool just above the plastic in the upper right hand cornerand have it cut the plastic from there. Just like the first part file from tormach. Thanks for your help i watched many videos and i guess i just dont understand.
Zach

[RndmNmbr]

It sounds like you are having trouble with the concept of locating you zero point - in particular your Z0. For what you are trying to do, you need to use the transform option in sprutcam to locate your coordinate system zero on the surface of the part you are trying to make in sprutcam. From what you describe you also want to shift the X,Y 0,0 to the upper right of the stock.

Then when you go to execute the program on the mill, you need to touch off the tool on the surface of the clamped material you are trying to profile and set the Z axis DRO to zero in mach. You would use an edge finder to locate the upper right corner and set that to your X0,Y0 point in mach if that was critical. If it's not critical for you operation you can just eyeball it.

As an aside, while locating the zero this way works OK for one-off kind of jobs, if you are building more than one of something you really want to set the Z0 on the bottom of the stock, not the top. That way you don't have to touch off every time you load a new blank. Similarly it's a good idea to always set the X0,Y0 location to a machine referenced spot (like the back of a vise jaw and a work stop.)

Hope this helps ...