Home Built Rotary Axis Machine

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19 Oct 2012 12:17 - 23 Oct 2012 21:45 #25438 by fbn5000
Hi all

I’m new to the site so feel free to correct any mistakes I make.
Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I’ve been running a small 3 axis machine for some years now.
I use it to produce artistic relief's in Australian timbers.

Recently I designed and built a little XZA Rotary axis rig to explore the challenges of rotary machining. Its made of acrylic and its work space is 300mm x 120mmdia. Theoretically accurate to 0.03mm.



The finished item is pretty close to this render and of course I use LinuxCNC with the Axis GUI to control it.

Everything works except for the graphic showing the tool path. The job runs properly and the resultant cut is correct in all respects.

Although the tool is touched off to the top of the job the graphic depicts the tool as being inside the cylindrical workspace cutting on the bottom of the job. Nothing I’ve tried will get the tool cone to display on the top outer surface. Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Frank
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Last edit: 23 Oct 2012 21:45 by fbn5000. Reason: restore Image

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19 Oct 2012 16:12 - 19 Oct 2012 16:13 #25443 by ArcEye
Hi

Have a look at this thread
www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/compo...729&limit=6&start=24

It produces a solution for using back tool / slant bed lathes through G10 L2 axis rotation. Your rig has many similarities with such a lathe.

The other option is to experiment with setting something like [DISPLAY] GEOMETRY= -XZA in the .ini file, but this tends to leave the dimensions bars and axis intersection markers orphaned in the plot display.

regards
Last edit: 19 Oct 2012 16:13 by ArcEye.

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19 Oct 2012 20:38 #25454 by fbn5000
Thanks Mate

I'll try that links advice out today. I mucked around with the GEOMETRY parameter when I was first setting up but the stuff in the link was unknown to me.

Thanks again and I'll tell you how I get on.

Regards
Frank

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21 Oct 2012 00:36 #25520 by andypugh
fbn5000 wrote:

Recently I designed and built a little XZA Rotary axis rig to explore the challenges of rotary machining. Its made of acrylic and its work space is 300mm x 120mmdia.


That's an interesting looking machine.
You could probably get quite a lot of money for that via Kickstarter, if you wanted to be making machines, not machining wood.
There are quite a few ornamental turning lathes using LinuxCNC, Dewey Garret is fairly heavily involved in the project:
www.deweygarrett.com
And I have seen Bill Ooms on these forums too
billooms.com

Do you have any links to your work?

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22 Oct 2012 01:56 #25577 by fbn5000
Thanks for the links.

I don't have a web site yet but it looks like I'll have to set one up.

Here's a pic of a recent piece done in a Jarra burl. The frame is A4. [/img]

By the way I still haven't got the Axis display to work properly.

Regards
Frank
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22 Oct 2012 11:55 #25593 by andypugh
fbn5000 wrote:

Here's a pic of a recent piece done in a Jarra burl

Nice. Very Huldra.

By the way I still haven't got the Axis display to work properly.

It might not actually be possible, or not without code changes.
The order of the axes in the GEOMETRY line is rather important, but I guess you might have tried all combinations by now.

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22 Oct 2012 11:57 #25595 by BigJohnT
Dang, that is some nice work!

Do you have a photo of the rotary axis machine at work?

John

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23 Oct 2012 20:25 #25703 by fbn5000
Thanks

This is a pic of the machine setup for a 90mm Dia PVC Lithophane.

Yes that's a Chinese 3 axis controller. It works well.

At the moment I'm trying to get Solidworks interfaced so I can machine directly not through STL's
This is not as easy as one would think as changing machine configurations and post processors
to accommodate my unconventional design is not straight forward. DeskProto was a piece of cake.

Here's a pic of the pen I want to make.


Regards
Frank
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23 Oct 2012 20:28 - 23 Oct 2012 20:40 #25704 by fbn5000
Woops

Here's the Machine


Sorry about that. I need to read the instructions.
Story of my life, bumble along untill circumstance forces me to RTFM.

Have a good day
Regards
Frank

By the way what happened to the pics in my previous posts
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Last edit: 23 Oct 2012 20:40 by fbn5000.

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23 Oct 2012 21:17 #25709 by andypugh
fbn5000 wrote:

By the way what happened to the pics in my previous posts


No idea. I know I didn't delete them, and I suspect JT didn't either.
The forum is a bit strange. You should be able to go back, edit the post, and put them back.
I looked in the file browser in the admin section and they have just disappeared.

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