QTPlasmaC with fourth axis - rotary

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07 Jun 2023 16:01 #273083 by mariusl
Has anyone implemented a fourth e axis for rotary tube cutting yet? I read some old posts that seemed to indicate that PlasmaC will not allow that. According to the Sheetcam tutorial, the THC will take care of cutting over the corners of a square tube.
I also saw something about QTPlasmaC having a setting to allow Z axis movements.
Can anyone shed some light please?
 

Regards
Marius


www.bluearccnc.com

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07 Jun 2023 16:51 #273089 by mariusl
That will do it then for the Z axis moves.
The only question then is can I have a fourth axis? Although it is a rotary axis but it is setup as a linear axis in order to accommodate the Sheetcam plugin requirements.

Regards
Marius


www.bluearccnc.com

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07 Jun 2023 17:35 #273098 by tommylight

According to the Sheetcam tutorial, the THC will take care of cutting over the corners of a square tube.

 

Yeah ... no! :)
At very slow turning speeds, yes
Made it work at normal cutting speeds, but required building a new Z axis with float switch that can do 6m/m at least, for it to be usable, for up to 60x40 oval, not square.
If you have a look at industrial 4 axis machines, they all have the tube stationary while cutting with plasma. Lasers are a different beast, so there are some that do cutting and moving at the same time.
All this can be done, it just complicates things a bit, and must settle on the main thing, what will the machine be cutting, from this to that, no "i would like to .. later".
Using 4 full axis absolutely works, the CAM is the issue there. SheetCam did have something for it, never used so no idea how good it is.
Also radius's cause issues, so must be accounted for.
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If we can agree on what we need the machine to do, say from 30x30 to 100x100 with 2,3,5 and 10mm radii, maybe we can convince Phill and Snowwy to make a wizard for it, for most uses the wizard is OK.
As for cutting complicated stuff on square tube, no need for 4 axis, cut one side, turn, repeat. We do this a lot.

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07 Jun 2023 20:16 #273104 by mariusl
Have a look at this video. It is using Mach3 at fairly high speeds. I am of the opinion that if they can do it in Mach, I don't see why it can not be done in Linuxcnc.
I unfortunately don't have enough insight into the inner workings of QTPlasmaC to comment at all.


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Marius


www.bluearccnc.com

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07 Jun 2023 20:20 #273105 by snowgoer540
Would be helpful to see their gcode file.

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07 Jun 2023 20:31 #273108 by mariusl
I have a license for the rotary plugin of Sheetcam. I could do a sample if you tell what you want to look at?

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Marius


www.bluearccnc.com

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07 Jun 2023 20:38 #273109 by tommylight
@Marius
Not done by Mach, done by CAM, mach is just moving stuff.
CAM has to do the synchronized moves required.
@Snowwy
It just needs a bit of logic and math for most stuff, with some material presets, then add those together.
Simple enough until actually start programing, then it get very complicated, very fast.
Thing to be aware of, shorts:
100x100 with a 3mm radius on corners does not have the same perimeter as 100x100 with 5 or 10mm radii.
That same difference has to be accounted for also for the Z axis movements during turning of the material, as if set for 3mm the 5 or 10 will be to far and vice versa.
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I did write some of the stuff here somewhere, but if there is interest we can do a separate topic just for this so it is all in one place.
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Just to be clear, i am thinking same as before, simple shapes/lines/circles/etc from a wizard, just done for 4 axis.
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07 Jun 2023 20:49 - 07 Jun 2023 20:52 #273114 by mariusl
Agreed Tommy. The Sheetcam pluging does generate the gcode already. Is it not easy enough to get Les to write us a post for linuxcnc or QTPlasmaC in particular to get the job done. He does all the work already in the plugin.
If you look at the video the chap explains how to deal with the radius issue and the plugin has that built in already. One just has to enter the right information. Even for more complex cutting.

Regards
Marius


www.bluearccnc.com

Last edit: 07 Jun 2023 20:52 by mariusl.
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07 Jun 2023 20:52 #273115 by tommylight
I would leave the complicated stuff to SheetCam, it is quite good for the price.
And there is a free version, and it works in Linux, so i am OK with it.
Also Les helps a lot, thank you Les. :)

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