Possibly simple idea for Holding Workpiece

I did this on my last cut and it worked very well. Sure people may already do this and may already be posted here but I couldn’t find it if it was.

When i designed my last cut, a remux of the Arcade plans. I managed to get it to all fit in a 4 x 4 area, JUST fit mind. Anyway, after i did all the toolpaths in Fusion i was thinking i would have to load the file in ground control and jog the head around to the waste bits of the design so i could put screws there. Then i thought why not just put points where i could use screws to hold the workpiece, have this as the first toolpath, with a drill operation of a couple mill, just enough to mark the location, and then put in a fake toolchange so the program would pause to allow me to screw the workpiece where it was marked.

This worked perfect! Putting a number of screws on the edge and the middle of the workpiece allowed me to take out any warping too and the cuts i got were a vast improvement over my first project.

Hope this isn’t a repeat but hopefully this will help someone out. For the toolchange i just added i think ‘M06 T02’ into the g-code file after the first move command of the second toolpath, so the sled would not be in the way of any marks. My G-code for this project as an example.Daves_Bartop.nc (365.8 KB)

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Haven’t heard this idea before, love it. Perfect when you have spent a few hours fitting everything on a board.

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I just screw everything. I guess I do the pre path in my head, your way is more sure. I haven’t had a collision yet. As a workfloaw I like the concept very much.

Thank you

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