Newbie Setting the "X"

I just finished setting up my lathe. All is working well mechanically/electronically. I have not set up any tools in the tool table because my tool changing is totally manual. The Z axis seems to be ok its the X that is confusing me. I'm not sure where to home it. And when I do a touch off and enter the radius of the work piece the tool icon jumps to zero in the linux display but the radius read out value reflects the radius I entered. I must be doing something wrong.. Any thoughts?

What kind of tool holder do you have?

tool holder? It is manual, I put the cutting tool in the holder a tighten it down with a wrench. no quick change or nothing. I lose reference each time I loosen the cutting tool.

Here is a side view of tool holder-it bolts down to the X cross slide. Yes very old school

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationOK, just checking to see what sort of idea would work best.

With a fully-manual tool holder you probably want to just use G54 (coordinate system) offsets all the time. For Z you can do this with a dowel pin, put the tool less than the pin dia from the end of the work then jog away until the pin slips through the gap.

X is probably best done with a touch then test cut method (very much like you would with a manual).

A quick-change toolholder might be a good investment, you are losing much of the advantage of CNC with that tool holder.
This is cute, but not what you would call cheap:

I don't know why the tool-point goes to zero if the DRO says not-zero. That's very strange, I have never seen it.

These are also Chinese but a better price and nicely made. Also less of a weirdo than that German guy in my experience!
I have an "A" set - very nice.

Muzzer wrote: These are also Chinese but a better price and nicely made. Also less of a weirdo than that German guy in my experience!
I have an "A" set - very nice.

Yes, I have the A set too, from Create Tool. Very nice company to work with, "Nina" responds promptly to emails. I bought some blank holders from them for special purposes (just the serrations and height adjustment, unhardened)

However I get the impression from that tool post clamp that this is a very tiny lathe being talked about,

Yes, as you say the German one is "cute", although it's 57mm vs 70mm overall for the "Aa" size, so not a massive difference.

Its an Emco Compact 5, 5x14 that i converted to CNC, and yes I will be investing in a quick change tool post soon...