Manual Homing

I have limit switches etc…, but have not wired them yet.

However, I would like to manually home the machne, but cannot figure it out.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

I want to move the gantry to the front, move the spindle all the way to the left, then manually tell it that this position is home. I’m assuming this is possible, but you know what they say about that…

Edward Ford advocates for a technique which he terms “Poor Man’s Homing”.

Basically one:

  • powers down the machine
  • moves the machine to the furthest extremes of the corner which one wishes to use as home
  • powers up the machine while holding it tightly against that corner
  • jog the machine to where one wishes home to be
    — note the distances
  • issue G92 X0 Y0 Z0

The next time one wants to use that for home one can replace the last two steps w/ the distances being used as offset.

If you click the “Carve” button, you have the ability to move the spindle around in the X, Y, and Z axes. You can also adjust the increments of movement, which I believe default at 0.1" (not sure what in mm). I will typically use that to home the machine, and rarely if ever use the homing switches.

One word of advice, always check the screen increments before you try moving the machine and always take your time. If you just changed the increments and press the up or down buttons on the keyboard, it changes the increments to some goofy numbers instead of moving the machine. I’ve also accidentally driven the Z axis up and down 11 inches instead of 1 inch when I fat-finger the buttons, and have broken bits and a limit switch…