Endstops in CNC mills?

I'm currently adapting a small 3-axis mill for CNC use. I'm planning to use RepRap electronics and firmware to control it.

However, I'm wondering what I should do with the endstops. Homing the mill doesn't make much sense (at least when you don't have automatic toolchangers or such), since in practice I have to set the home position to the workpiece's, not the mill's, zero coordinates before starting a job.

They won't help (much) in protecting the mill either, since if it goes somewhere it shouldn't, it will probably run into the workpiece clamping long before hitting the endstops. So... should I just disable the endstops?

it is common practice on a mill / router to have 2 sets of coordinates

Machine and Work

Software controllers like Mach3 and EMC will have these functions built in,
and I would lean towards a similar setup / routine which seems to work well

Once the machine is homed, you can define or set the maximum travel allowed ( machine coordinates.)
then it’s switched over to work coordinates. where you can zero the cords. where you need to on your part,

you mill and cut in Work coordinates
while your machine coordinates keeps track of your maximum table size, in the background