z zero leaves a mark

[franks house of tops]

Can anyone tell me why after i set the x,y,z zero and hit the run file tab, the router drops down to the material service and touches then it raises up to the z safe and moves to the start point of the project. this leaves a router bit mark in the material. how can i stop this from happening? this is on a shark pro plus hd. thank you for your help.

[4DThinker]

Why? That is the way it is designed to work, despite being a questionable decision IMO.

Work around? Go into settings and tell the control panel your Touch plate is .1" thinner than it really is. If it is .375 than change that to .275. When done, a "Move to 0,0,0" should end up .1" from the top of your surface every time. Now in VCarve or Aspire or Cut3D, all of your tool paths should have a starting depth of .1" if they used to be 0, or add .1" to any value they currently are.

If you don't want change your plate thickness you can just edit (set) the current Z value to subtract .1" from whatever it reads after using the Touch Plate.

[milo30]

Also, simply zeroing off a corner instead of the center may work depending on what you are doing.

[Consultingwoodworker]

I do not have a touch plate, I set zero using a piece of paper as a feeler gage. I set zero with the paper just dragging beneath the bit. That way the bit does not touch when the program starts, and if I'm using more than one bit, they all get set to the same zero, or so close it does not matter.

Also, because most materials are NOT exactly the thickness they should be, (3/4 ply is 23/32, etc) I often program for the full depth and use a set up block to set zero. I did this with a program today. I needed to leave behind a specific thickness of material. The sheet was supposed to be 1/2" but of course was not. But the actual thickness is irrelevant since I zeroed off the block.

Ralph

[McBuster]

That happens to me all the time. I zero the XY Axis by sighting along the edges of the material using a 60 degree bit. Good enough. I zero the Z Axis about a quarter inch in from the lower left corner, and simply place the bit, loose in the chuck on the material. Tighten, and go. Sometimes, the launch to 0,0,0 leaves a small mark, but I simply sand that off. Tried the Touch Plate, tried paper. For my use, just placing it on the material? Works great. And it is quick.