How do we want homing the z-axis to work

[boxomatic]

@anesbitt

I would like to pause a job while cutting and lower the z home position like .02” to more consistently cut through material

This would be handy. I believe it should work as you describe. Just remember to shut the router off and turn it back on in there somewhere.

The only issue I see is that if the idea of Z-zero is the tip of the bit is flush with the bottom of the sled, if you need the bit position adjusted lower, you need to have the bit sticking out below the sled. I believe it currently lifts up a small amount before moving so it’s above the work surface. That might be a feature of the CAM software you use as well. I feel like with the jobs we were running where the plunge depth was 9.7 mm the retract amount was some odd mm value i.e. not 5mm even, and I meant to look up if that was an inch value translated to metric somewhere.

Anyway, if your z-adjustment leaves the bit below the sled then it will hang up when moving, but my experience has been that there would be a few mm to play with as long as your Gcode is doing something reasonable like retracting slightly above zero during moves.

I don’t know my CNC but I think what I’m talking about is referenced below:

@jemmer798

So since I posted, and after reading @dlang 's mention of the Z commands, I looked into changing the default Post Processing settings. I changed the “Safe Retract Height” from the default (G53 I believe) to Clearance Height, and haven’t had any more issues thus far (>15 cuts all unique .nc files). The .nc files also have a bit of a disclaimer about the change: (-Attention- Property Safe Retracts is set to Clearance Height. Ensure the clearance height will clear the part and or fixtures. Raise the Z-axis to a safe height before starting the program.) I don’t now if this is the answer, but it has worked for me so far.