Ensuring workpiece is aligned

I've made excellent progress in getting my machine up and running. One lingering question, however. What methods does everyone use to ensure that the workpiece that is clamped to the table is "square" with the work offset/coordinate system? Touching-off on X,Y,and Z is fine, but is there another way to detect/ensure that the workpiece isn't rotated and that it's plane is parallel to the milling table?

as long as your fixed jaw is indicated along the X or Y axis(whichever you ues) the part(stock)
will be aligned. i use a dial indicator on the jaw and then i use an edge finder(if available,BigJohnTs' idea
works great also) to home axis to the part.

Do you know the Zentrofix gauge? Trivial and accurate.

marwa-tools.ch/Bilder/PDF/Zentrofix-E.pdf



www.majosoft.com/metalworking/html/zero_margins.html

We use these at work:

www.haff-schneider.de/index.php?article_id=78&clang=1

A probe DTI crossed with a lever arm DTI = an edge finder ...

And when we break the ceramic probe we use a wiggler:

littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2278