Introduction to Go-to Positions (0:00-1:20)
0:00-1:21: “Hey, hey, welcome to another training video. Today we’re going to cover more manual controls and positions, specifically the Go-to positions. They are saved locations around the machine, um, that the, that you can tell the machine to just go to as fast as possible. This will allow you to speed up your setup procedures and even check part locations before running programs. So let’s go show you some of those that you can control. Now, most of the go-to positions are gonna be found under the work station screens. So you can be in any of these three workstation screens and you’re gonna be going over to your display screens under control. And you can see here it’s called GoTo and there’s a whole column of them of GoTo positions, four of ’em here. But we’re also gonna talk about some other locations that are located at the home screen as well. So the first one on the list is what’s called our offset XY zero position. So because I’m in my horizontal work table and in a previous video we showed how, how to control the jog feed rate and step jog and constant jog settings, um, by doing a demonstration of zeroing out our X and Y to a part in the corner of the table. So if we actually say I want the machine to go to the XY position that we had set up,”
Offset XY Zero Position (1:20-3:30)
1:18-1:36: “to the XY position that we had set up, we can visually verify that before running a program or part to make sure our zeros are set up correctly. So if I push offset XY zero, it’s gonna move the center of that cutter over the what should be the corner of the part that’s on the corner of this table.”
1:41-3:33: “And it did exactly that. Now this is gonna move it to zero to whatever work offset is activated. So for example, we did a bar stool recently. If I activate this and click go to off, um, let’s see the offset XY zero, it’s gonna move to a different location on the machine. If I go to my vertical table and same thing, okay, I have some, let’s say something here, um, was an XY zero and say offset XY zero, that’s gonna go over somewhere over my vertical workstation area, wherever that zero was, was positioned for that last part that we set up. Uh, same thing for the turning center. So if you come over here and say, um, offset XY zero for the turning center, that’ll bring it directly over the turning center, which is right here at the Headstock end. Uh, so we can quickly verify that our parts are set up correctly before we’re running a program. With this, this is very, very handy. The next type of go-to position is the offset Z zero. Now you need to be very careful with this specific one. For example, here in the turning center, if I said go to Z zero, it would try to move the tip of this cutter to the center of that turning center. And that can obviously cause some crashes and problems. So there’s very specific locations in which we actually use this button to tell it to go to uh, Z zero, even on the horizontal work table. If I, um, bring it back over here to offset XY zero, And if Z zero was set for the top of the material, then this would be just fine because the tip of the cutter would stop at the top. But if the tip, but if the Z zero was set for the bottom of the material and I said go to or offset Z zero, then that would try to push the cutter past the material to get to the bottom.”
Offset Z Zero Position (3:30-5:10)
3:29-5:10: “to push the cutter past the material to get to the bottom. So that can cause a crash as well. So typically in my horizontal tables and turning screens, I am, I’m not using the offset Z zero, the only time I’m using the offset Z zero is in the vertical table. If I’m using the tip of my cutter as kind of a, a stopping block, uh, for a part that’s in my vertical vice, I need to slide it up until it hits my cutter at Z zero. Lemme show you how we can do that. So let’s say I’ve, I’ve already set up a Z zero for this location, but I need to know exactly where to put it. There’s a couple of different methods, but the one I was just talking about is using the tool as a stop. And so if we go to our controller, go back to our vertical table here and then say go to offset XY zero. So it comes over our vertical station first, and then I say offset Z zero because the Z zero has already been set. Uh, you just need to make sure you’re aware of that, that anytime you say go to x, y zero or Z zero, it’s from the last position that you had that you had saved. So I’m gonna say offset Z zero. Okay, brings it to this point. And now I can use that as a stop so that my part goes to the exact height position. That’s one of the few times that you’ll use, um, go to Z zero position, um, from, from that controller interface. And now I can lift it up And this would then be ready to machine”
M-T-C-X-Y Zero Position (5:10-6:40)
5:08-6:42: “this would then be ready to machine with whatever program I wanted to use. So we just need to remember that these two go-to positions are tied to the actual offsets. So these are positions that we can control and manage and put anywhere we want on the machine. Um, so it’s, it’s good to have them so that you can check your location before actually running a program. Uh, the only one I rarely use is the offset Z position. ’cause we’re gonna have our smart tool automatically do the set up procedure for us and you can watch those videos on how to set up your Z access using the smart tool. And that takes care of it for us automatically, which is really nice. Alright, the next go-to position is what’s called the M-T-C-X-Y zero. And we covered this in another training video where, uh, we showed how to get tools in and outta the machine manually. Uh, so this is just a, a quick review of that. So if we press that button, it’s gonna move the machine to where we can easily take the tool in and out. Okay, so this is right by the operator at the, and the controller. So I can now grab this and I can release my tool and or put tools in. So it’s really close to the operator for manual tool change sequences. The last one on this list is the safe x, y, Z button. Now this works really well when you are, you’re done with a program, you’re done cutting and you just need to get the cutter out of the way. Uh, I’ll push that safe x, y, z button, it will lift up and then move outta the way kind of to the central point.”
Safe X, Y, Z Position (6:40-7:50)
6:39-6:56: “and then move outta the way kind of to the central point. It’s actually in the location where it warms up the spindle during the warmup routine at the beginning of the day. Um, that’s the exact location that safe x, y, z position actually goes. So let’s push that and see where it goes. Safe, X, Y, Z. There we go.”
7:02-7:52: “Now that’s kind of a, a neutral zone so we can get access to all three of our workstations and get parts in and out easily, but it doesn’t go all the way back over the tool rack. And so we can easily switch out cutters and tools, um, for auto tool change machines as well. Uh, so it’s kind of a safe new zone for a lot of applications, um, and operation procedures. Now, the last go-to position is actually not found in the control display screen in any of the workstations. That’s gonna be under the home screen. And we use this for shutting down the machine, the park system button. Now if we press that, we’re familiar that it goes back to where it homes the machine. Okay? Now that’s handy when I need to get the, the cutter completely out, out of the way when I’m doing large scale parts, like for example,”
Park System and Conclusion (7:50-8:47)
7:48-8:47: “when I’m doing large scale parts, like for example, full four by eight sheet processing on here. Um, I want my cutter completely out of the way as I’m loading and offloading parts and sheets. Uh, same thing for my turning center. If I’m using a full length turning center, um, for, for a big blank, I’ll park my system just to get it out of the way. So from a vertical table, never had to use that before. The horizontal large parts on the horizontal and turning center park system works great for that purpose. Well go give those a try. You can see that using these go-to positions that are dedicated, you know, almost like, uh, zero positions, but they’re just dedicated saved locations on the machine that we can quickly go to at any time. They can speed up your setup procedures, like your manual tool, change procedures, uh, check your XY zeros for when you’re about to run a part to make sure XY zero is correct. Uh, just get the cutter outta the way so you can get larger parts in and outta the machine at any time. Uh, so go ahead and give those a try and you’ll find they’re gonna definitely help you out a lot.”
