Thread: I'd like a fourth axis. :)

That looks a nice bit of gear Steve.

Can you mount a chuck to it?

Some of those rotary tables have an adjustment method for the worm drive. For backlash that would be good.

Is this to be used on a mill or router? Do you have specific jobs in mind or just general? You need to make a tailstock for it now.

Perhaps if you start churning out jobs I will get motivated to pull mine out from under the pile of junk and do some more on it.

Greg

Hey greg, I made this one up for my router, but Its portable so it can be used with a mill as well. I purchased a tail stock and chuck with it at the same time, just didnt get around yesterday to mounting the chuck yet

Yes it has an adjustment for removing backlash from the worm gear, it has a guick worm drive disconnect. and adjustment for backlash on the main gear as well.

I dont know if youve seen this photo, I sent it to rod a while back, the new cnc work centre at work, three coolant lines 8000rpm spindle super quiet, auto tool changer (20tools) etc etc

Hey greg, I downloaded that program that andrew wrote "wrapper" looks the part thats for sure, however it references the radius as a - figure, is this for when you use the bottom of your job as zero z ref,

G'day Steve

I have not used it for a while. As I remember zero is the centreline of the job.

Don't know why it wants a minus number for radius. But it does.

There is a reasonably good help file.

Should not expect too much. Andrew wrote this first try at programming as a learning exercise.

Greg

Thanks greg, just unusual using a - measurment, unless its designed around your zero offset being the bottom of the job and not the top during initial design

Thanks

Steve

Steve

Looking at it, looks like you must set zero to the bottom of material in Vcarve.

Not sure why it is like that but I guess there is some reason in the calculations that must be done.

To have it display on the toopath window, set it up in config.

Config menu, toolpath. Set the axis that the rotary lines up with and set "A-Rotations Enabled"

Also set "Use diameter for Feedrate". Then set the diameter on the settings page and it will interpret the feedrate correctly.


Greg

Finally dug the gearbox rotary out from under the pile and made up a tailstock and base for it.

Not going to qualify for the high precision machinery division but I reckon it will be fairly capable.

Made it so that it can be mounted on the X3 as well. If it is successful I will get a small three jaw chuck for it.

Now if only Vectric had a 4th axis module to go with Aspire.

Greg

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Nice bit of fabricating
Are you going to use a smaller chuck so that the spindle can get closer to the chuck end?

Yeah as I said if it proves useful and I want better holding precision than the wood lathe chuck will provide, then I will get a small 80 or 100mm three jaw chuck.

I already had the wood chuck from a wood lathe so that will do till I pine for better.

Past experience tells me that won't be long.

Also the reason I made it with the same spindle thread as my wood lathe is that I have a variety of work holding devices I have made for the wood lathe that will fit straight on.

Face plates, pin chuck, screw chuck, etc.

Another advantage that I can see is a job may be turned in the wood lathe then transferred, chuck and all, to the rotary axis. No re setup.

Time will tell. It may just be left on the floor again.

Suitable CAM software is my biggest problem.

Greg

I have been posting some 4th axis stuff on the Vectric forum to encourage users to consider the possibilities of adapting Aspire to a 4th axis.

http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=6449

Anyway I made this little youtube video.

Greg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWFSdogFx_g

Nice work Greg.
I was sitting there wondering if the pattern was going to meet up and it sure did so well done.Next gears?

Hi , Greg has a eye for detail, nice work Greg

cheers

Why does Greg leave all the really nice 4th axis pictures on the Vectric forum.

PS: Just starting our 4th axis. We have decided on using some planetary gears that Nigel has floating around. The backlash has been eliminated by pre-loading the gears.
Just have to decide on stepper motors for the unit that will work on the X4 and GRF.

G'day Mike

I wrote some tutorial, sort of, posts on the Vectric forum, using Vcarve Pro / Aspire toolpaths and Wrapping them onto a 4th axis.

Unfortunately Vectric were not so keen. They thought that it might lead readers to believe Vectric products had 4th axis capability. Fair enough, it is their forum.

The Wrapper program is going to have a version 2 released soon. I have seen it and it is really good.

When that happens, I will redo the tutorials to a more generic CAM focus and put them up.

Greg