Alrighty then...again...
I re-mounted the 1/16 bit...same thing.
I swapped out for the 1/8 cutting bit (a tad shorter in comparison).....same thing.
It's occurred to me that it's hard to see thru the cover as to whether the bit is really going all the way down to home during the LOAD BIT procedure....
so I jimmied the cover switch and tried it again, watching for the bit touchpoints- it's still hard to see, but the bit doesn't seem to be going below the board surface to HOME after all...shouldn't it be going to 0 (at least) on X-axis? Or am I not remembering correctly?
*By "0" I mean level with traction belts
*Dammit! I meant Z-axis