What’s in your “safe start” for every CNC program?

[Alan]

Let’s collect the G-code safety habits that keep shops out of trouble, especially the simple ones that are easy to follow. A lot of crashes seem to come from the first few moves, wrong plane, wrong offset, wrong mode, or a retract that was not as safe as it looked.

What is your personal checklist for safe starts and first moves, and what do you do to make sure the machine is in a known state? If you have a preferred approach for resets, retract height, and verifying offsets before the first cut, drop it here. Even short answers are useful if they are habits you truly do every time.

 

[EikoCarol]

I’ve learned most problems happen in the first 10 seconds. My routine is reset, verify the work offset and tool length for the tool I’m about to use, then a clear retract to a safe height, then a slow approach to the first position. I also like to dry run above the part if anything changed since last time.