How to use the Zero on Bed

[barrowj]

Guys,

This may sound really bad but I have always used the zero at the top of the material and never on the bed. I want to try this as I have seen posts that people use it to plane their material to a precise thickness. Can someone please explain how to set this up in either VCarve or Aspire? I'm not sure what to set in the toolpath section, it has confused me and I could not find any specific instructions on it or I have missed it. I am just really confused as to how to set the depth of cut mostly.

Thanks, Joe

[barrowj]

So I was just thinking that I am overthinking the process. See if I am correct, I set the zero to the bed, give an approx thickness to my material (let's say .90) and then set my planing cut to say .15 which will plane the wood to .75. Does this sound correct?

[Brady Watson]

This can be confusing if you don't use it often...

Instead of driving yourself nuts, just Zzero to the bed. Then MZ .75 - then ZZ.

Now proceed with your 'normal' top of the block math/programming.

-B

[scottp55]

Joe, sent an e-mail with .crv..check your spam folder:)

[Chuck Keysor]

Here is an older thread on how to plane material to a predefined thickness zeroing from the table top. http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?19959-zero-from-table

I did what Kyle Stapleton said, and it worked. Chuck