Denford Software & Machines

With the old VR2 I used to just send the bed to the far right/back of travel (centre of tool over machine max XY travel position) and mount the job with its corner on those lines.
Then in the setting zeros there was an option for zeroing to the centre of the cutter for XY

In VR5 this option is no longer there.

Now I have taken to mounting the job with its rear in vertical alignment with the rear of the bed.

the left had side of the job is mounted about 20mm to the right from the max position of the machine travel in X.

for x zero
I lower the cutter and jog it to just touch the left hand end of the Job in X
Open the Zero box,
Use the left hand option which has a picture of the cutter in the same position and with tool radius of the cutter size in the option box. Thus saying the centre of the cutter was 2.5mm (5mm Dia cutter) to the left of the edge of the job.

for y zero
I lower the cutter and jog it to just touch the front edge of the job in y
open the zero box
use the box with the same graphical image showing the cutter just touching the front of the job in y. Again 2.5mm in the tool radius option box. Thus saying the centre of the cutter was 2.5mm to the front of the edge of the job.

for z zero
drop the tool to just touch the job, change the offset to 0mm and selecting the image with the tool on top of the job.

Now when machining X and Z are fine. However Y machines 2.5mm forward so the job is moving by 2.5mm back towards the Z bed.

So if I send the machine to the Job zeros X and Z are fine but Y is now out by 2.5mm.
If I select the option of having the tool over the job and align the edge of the tool with the edge of the job in Y and zero it using the option with the same picture it works.
If I then move the tool off the front of the job have the edge touching the tool select the option with the same picture that will then work.

Any Ideas as to what is going on folks? This is happening on BOTH micromills with V5

Cheers

I use VR Milling 5.

When transferring the machine's X, Y and Z coordinates to the work offsets menu the default is to transfer the coordinates without changing them, so in the case of X and Y the work offsets will be aligned with the CENTRE of the cutter. The boxes to tick are along the top right of the window. The G Code then allows for this either by using cutter compensation or by changing the X and Y positions, within the G Code, by half the diameter of the cutter. When importing DWG files into VR Milling to produce G Code, I've never seen it use cutter compensation. It always modifies the cutter path.

I haven't tried using the option of aligning the side of the cutter with the edge of the work and then clicking the box to modify the coordinates by adding (or is it subtracting?) half the cutter diameter. The boxes to tick are down the right side of the menu. Have you tried noting the machine's X and Y coordinates before you transfer them to the work offsets menu? If things are working OK you should see that the coordinates in the work offsets menu differ from the machine coordinates by half the cutter diameter or 2.5mm in your case.

Thanks for that, I have been clicking in the boxes on the right which has only offered inboard or outboard of material, I didn't realise the default was to set to the cutter centre. I'll have a better look at this now next week. With the old V2 having the 3 to select from on the same window I figured it had been changed to only in/out board for some reason.

I thought it was odd and half expected it was a SUE Fault (Stupid User Error) in my abilities.

Cheers

Pete