On my machine the bed moves for the y axis. I believe the machine should still be set up as all movememnts relative to the spindle. So -x is left and +x is right and the +y the bed moves toward the front of the machine (-y direction making the spindle "move" towards the back of the machine) and vice versa. My z and x machine coordinates seem to work fine. Home is 0, 0 and the position never seems the number readouts never actually seem to exceed the theoretical values. The y, however, is off. The y machine coordinates state -995mm when the machine is homed making -1000mm the actual y home position. I think I get the negative value ( I suppose the default home position form most machines is top back right) but I think on my machine the the home should be top front right. So I think I need to change the home and also inform the machine that it only has 400mm x, 240mm y, and 110mm z travel.
You are correct that jogging directions refer to tool movement relative to the workpiece, so on a moving table machine Y+ will move the table forwards. My next comments refer to the workspace, so BACK corner for Y would mean the table was fully forward. You can have your machine home on any corner (except that Z MUST always be UP) - the homing sequence sets the back, right, up corner to the maximum dimension for each axis - as cnc machines work in NEGATIVE space this means that the back, right, up corner will be set to 0,0,0 - if your homing position is (say) 1000 mm away from the back, right, up corner then the dro will report that position as -1000. Hope that makes sense. Alex. PS - all of the above refers to the MACHINE co-ordinate system - jobs use the WORKPLACE coordinates system, the reference point for which is where you set XYZ zero (in the same place on your workpiece as you set the origin in your cam software).
Okay, that all makes sense and is helpful. Thank you. I think if I'm going to enable soft limits in the machine will need to know the length of the axis. So when I home it should really say z0, x0 and y -240 I'm having trouble finding where I input the limits of the machine considering that it is a custom build in black box.
