Hey @LucasPe your question is best answered in this video:
But I think I have an idea of where you’re getting hung up. First let’s talk through some features/details:
There’s a feature you likely have enabled called “Prevent Work Surface Dig In”
This feature will help prevent your tool from cutting too deep into your work surface. As you can see in the screenshot I have mine set to allow up to a .06" dig-in.
If I send a job that will command the spindle to dig in farther than that, you get a Z limit error, which is what you are seeing. It should be noted this is ONLY for when running a job, you can still jog the tool manually past this limit.
I think this is only part of your problem however.
The second thing you want to check out is what your Z zero is, so do this:
Go into the touch plate utility and Z zero to the top of a piece of material that you know the thickness of. While still in the touch plate utility to to WCS CSR table and check what your Z height is:
See how mine is .75?
That means I zero’d off of the top of a .75" thick piece of material. (note for those that want to tweak this number to shave more material off on the fly: you can just type in a new number here or use the ABS/INC button to easily add or subtract material thickness here)
If this is accurate when you jog your bit on top of the material the DRO for Z should read 0 (see the setup video above)
If it doesn’t click on MTC and pick a tool number, input a diameter and remeasure the tool again off of the touch plate (this is all automatic if you have already setup the touch plate) Then try again. If you see Z zero with the bit on top of the material you’re good to go.
If everything is good and you try and run your G code file again, and you get that Z limit error that means your G code is trying to command the tool to dig into your work surface. That could mean a couple of things:
- Your G code file is truly commanding it to dig way too deep
- Your G code file is set to start cutting at the work surface and NOT from the top of the material. You need to make sure wherever you Z zeroed from matches how your CAM file is setup.
If your Z zero is NOT accurate (IE you put the tip of the bit on top of the material and you’re seeing something that is not even close to Z zero) it could be:
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You could have inserted a new tool and skipped pressing the MTC button, which would mean you measured your material with an unmeasured tool.
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Your tool height offsetter (fixed touch plate) could not be setup correctly. You can do the setup again in the UTILs menu and recalibrate it, and the work surface again. We have a user guide on this and that video above.
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You could have some bogus numbers in your WCS CSR table. Check a couple of things there:
Make sure your active WCS is the one you’re looking at:
You can insure this by clicking on which offset you want to use (most likely the first one) and clicking “set as active WCS” this will make sure you’re not looking at one, but actually have another one set.
You want to make sure your Z number is the thickness of your material, and that it’s not a negative number.
I am certain that once you run your first job this will all make sense, and be so much better than what you had before. The tool height measurement system is more accurate, and requires less work for the operator.
When you have it all calibrated right your WCS Z should always be the thickness of your material, and you can always double check that in your WCS CSR table. Changing to a new tool does NOT require you to re measure Z (which is awesome!)