Just like with a manual mill, it’s a matter of experience. He listened to the machine, watched the chips flying off, and checked the quality of the cut throughout. Fully automatic CNC?

One of the original ideas behind the RepRap project was for the machines to create their own upgrades. That philosophy is shining brightly in [Ivan Miranda] CNC milling machine project ...

Automatic probing ... anyone with a desktop CNC mill is likely to be something of a tinkerer. With careful experimentation, you should eventually be able to produce machine definitions and toolset ...