Home Built Rotary Axis Machine

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

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

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

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

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

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