I bought an ox cnc machine from ooznest, and it didn't come with stop switches and the homing cycle is disabled on the controller, is running a homing cycle essiential for cnc milling or why did the kit not come with the switches, is it something a can do without? and if so what sort of operations should I do at the beginning of a job?
I would say that the homing cycle is a super-useful upgrade (and cheap as well). Just get a few micro switches and you are good to go. However, while useful, it isn't necessary. If you don't have homing switches, you can set the 'zero' position of your machine by hand. Just jog it to the right position and click the button on your interface (or enter the proper g-code if doing it manually). The actual position you should use as 'zero' depends on how you run your CAM software and where you put your stock. Often when manually jogging, you want to move to one corner of your clamped stock material and set the zero right where the bit touches the surface. The reason why homing is so useful is that it can remove some of the tedium of manually jogging your machine and some of the potential mistakes when setting the zero point. Since the zero point is always the same position, you can always put your stock in the same position as well to make cutting super-simple. In addition, if something goes wrong halfway through and you have to hit the emergency stop, being able to re-home the machine and then re-run the program means that your piece might still be saved. The micro limit switches that come with a mounting plate are less than $5 each on OBPS: Micro Limit Switch Kit with Mounting Plate You only need 3 for your machine. I've run jobs before I had homing switches, so I know that it is reasonable to do it. But I think I've saved more than enough time using homing switches to justify the $15 they cost. They save me 15 minutes of futzing around on each and every job. -D
@tommy arno They are not need for machine operation, you can manually jog your machine to the start position and run your job. They do come in handy when you need to change mills for the same job, you always will have a reference point to work from. You only need 3, and then use soft limits: Endstops : Limit Switch Mounting Kit
if you move your machine to the back, right corner, move the Z to tthe top, and then turn on (or reset GRBL), that is the same as homing. if you leave G28 set to 0,0,0 then if you just give a G28 before you turn off, it will go there and be ready next time you turn on. homing is nice if you have a lot of power failures, it enables you to return to where you were and resume the job easily. but homing is not NEEDED.
