kinetic-control 1 min read
Setting Work Offsets in Kinetic Control: A Visual Reference
The four most-used work-offset workflows in Kinetic Control, with the keyboard shortcuts and one common gotcha that catches every new operator.
Work offsets — G54 through G59 — are the most-touched and least-documented part of any CNC workflow. Here is the practical reference for Kinetic Control, EU-customer edition.
1. Touch-off with a probe
If you bought the touch probe accessory: jog the probe to the part face, hit Probe → X, then Y, then Z. Kinetic Control writes the offset to the currently-active work coordinate. Total time: 90 seconds. Accuracy: ±5 µm.
2. Edge-finder + paper shim
No probe? Use a 3 mm cylindrical edge-finder and a paper shim (0.05 mm thick). Slow-jog until the paper grabs. Subtract the shim thickness in the offset dialogue. Quick and accurate to ±20 µm.
3. Tip-off from a known corner
When the fixture's reference corner is known relative to G54, just jog the tip of a tool to it and zero each axis. Fast for vise-mounted blanks; relies on you trusting the fixture.
4. Tip-off with a dowel pin
For high-repeatability work: insert a precision dowel into a known hole, jog the tool to touch it, subtract half the pin diameter. The dowel becomes a perpetual datum the work programme can call back to.
The gotcha
Kinetic Control stores work offsets per-machine, not per-programme. If a colleague resets G54 while you are at lunch, your part programme runs in their coordinate system. Use G55/G56/G57 for any work you want shielded from someone else's G54 fiddling, and call your offset explicitly in your post-processor output.
Full walkthrough lives in the Kinetic Control wiki → Tutorials → Work Coordinate System.
