Some folks have discovered that they can trick the machine into routing center-line text into a carve region by splitting the file into two parts. The first part where the carve region is made and the second part is the center-line text. When the second project is set up the bit is jogged over the already carved area so the touch down to find the board surface is down in the carve region.

Others have used this trick to use sleds with higher sides than the stock being carved.

I have mentioned a few times recently that this is a trick and will not always work. One of the software engineers saw my most recent warning about this issue and made a point to explain to me why they do not (and have never) recommended it. In fact the 'Jog-to-Point' feature was added to allow you to be sure and touch down on a good surface.

When you touch down procedure used to find the board surface has a very limited operational range. It has a good idea where the top of the board is but touches down on it twice to get it a very accurate reading. If you touch down in a already carved region or touch down on stock mounted on a sled where the sled rails are higher you will run into the following problems:

1) The touch down point be out of the range the machine expects the top of the board to be in meaning that the calibration is does based on that point is garbage.

2) Perhaps more importantly the machine will have no idea where the actual top of the board or sled rails are. This can/probably will cause the machine to run a bit or the Z-truck itself into the higher portion of the board or sled (because the machine has no idea that it is there.)

Either of these problems can cause sever damage to your machine so please don't do it.

Again let me reiterate that this trick has NEVER been a recommended practice. Using it can severely damage your machine.

I thought it best to bring this information forward in a separate post as I would hate to see anyone risk damaging their machine by trying this.