4th axis Millright bat for you to cut.

[jv]

I am currently working on a video for everyone to follow along with and use their 4th axis. Hopefully it's the type of video I try to find on youtube to at least get me up and going to make a test cut. It's definitely not going to be a polished video, but it covers all the steps and I'll have the tool paths for you guys to download and follow along. I've had one person test it already and follow my steps... But trying to cover everything for a beginner.. man! I might have to make 3 or 4 videos to cover other stuff to keep this first video short and sweet. I'll post the link when it finished. This won't be covering Fusion 360 or Aspire. Fusion- I don't have enough time on my hands to learn that right now. Aspire.. no luck there either for the 4th axis. Maybe a post processor works from another machine, but I am limited on time. Also, I am not trying to start a Youtube channel and pump out videos. This is solely for people to make a test cut and get up to speed. Maybe MillRight can give me a couple different logos to try out for this carve
 

[pmm]

Here's a PP for vcarve desktop. Works for me.

www.dropbox.com/s/t3q5ily6cql0w0y/IMG_7049.mov?dl=0

Attachments:

Grbl_WrapY_mm.pp (5.97 KB)

[jv]

Awesome! I'll try it out this week. Looking back, When I was trying out different post processors in vcarve, I believe I was making some mistakes. I tried to edit a couple PP going off of different PP's; but, I had soft limits turned on and I am sure the the Z limit switch was being triggered causing alarms. I am excited to try this PP in Aspire now. Desk Proto was simple to set up for Rotary. So I went that route for the 4th axis.

[pmm]

Some notes on my setup - probably a TL;DR:

While it shouldn't make a difference, I'll offer a caveat that I don't use UGS. I've got a RPi4 set up running CNCJS attached to the router. CNCJS has problems, but so far it's been much less buggy for me than UGS - and I can use my tablet or phone as a makeshift CNC pendant.

Also, what has worked bestfor me so far is to lathe raw stock down enough so that it will fit in the limited space allowed by the 4a appliance, making sure the end that's going to be chucked is round, and small enough that it can be chucked w/o the tips of the chuck jaws jamming against the base of the appliance. I set the z origin to the center axis of the chuck from the base of the mega (zero off the machine base with a probe then increase work zh to 53mm). In VCarve I set the work diameter to be a bit larger than the largest diameter of the turned stock, making sure my model doesn't extend past the actual diameter of the stock. The tool paths that vectric generates 'cut air' a bit until the machined diameter approaches the actual stock diameter. These things allow me to use stock on hand instead of dowel, provide relief from chucking concentricity variance (would be nice to be able to easily replace the 3jaw on the 4a with a 4j), deals with stock diameter differences (so I can just peel the stock down to round with a skew on the lathe w/o precisely gauging diameter), and makes it easy to replace tooling during a job.

When I made the adapter for the water cooled spindle, I made sure it was thick enough to remove interference between the top of the spindle and the top of the x/z axis carrier, so it's possible to adjust the spindle upwards to significantly increase the available height above base past what can be obtained using the stock mount and the loud-ass DeWilt.

[jv]

I appreciate the advice. What spindle did you end up going with? You're right, that dewalt router is little loud? I really like the idea on your work around for the spindle being able to get more height. Also, have you tried a Lathe Face Plate to attach the stock to? I bought a cheap one the other day and have yet to try it out on anything. I understand I'll have to use screws to hold the plate onto the wood stock. I think it might work for certain uses very well.

Desk Proto is easy to use for the 4th axis. I'll be curious to be able to compare it along side Aspire for rotary. In DP, can plug my normal dimensions in for sizing and then add a clearance number-for lets say square stock. super easy in that regards.

UGS does seem like it has a couple things that could be a little better. Hopefully future improvements will take place.

When cutting 2" dowels: I move the little black piece of plastic on the Z limit switch over to the right a little so that when I hit the "play" button, the z doesn't raise and bump that limit switch.. The clearance is maybe 1/16" and the Z axis never raises up 100%, so the clearance is good. I am not sure if you ran into that problem at all with your set up.

I ended up cutting the 4th axis plate in half. This allowed me to cut a 29" baseball bat. Once I put the Z height extension plates on, I plan on cutting a full size baseball bat..I'm just curious how it will turn out.

[jv]

I ended up making a video on facebook live for one of the Millright FB groups. Maybe when I get more time I'll do an edited video.
Video:

www.facebook.com/groups/1006388983068312/permalink/1187418588298683/

Here are the tool paths for the bat. Just follow the video. If you have different controllers in your Mega V, I am not 100% sure how the tool paths will work out.

drive.google.com/drive/folders/104FOhSfxXGjbHptvIo_KRWVbORozdakd?usp=sharing

Setup is the Mega V with the 4th axis from the kick starter campaign 

[pmm]

I bought a HY 1.5k kit. link to product on the usual source

The pump that cones with it is worthless, and I ended up making a closed loop cooling system with pc water cooling parts. 

Good call on splitting the 4a base apart. One of these days soon I’m going to pitch it altogether and machine some blocks to put the rotary unit and a good tailstock on - the system is hamstrung by being so narrow and short. 

I haven’t run into an issue with the z limit switch except for when I’m not being careful and run the carriage up too high by hand like a dumbass. Same as when I zero z off the bed and then hit the ‘go to z 0’ button while over the stock - like a dumbass. 

Another planned fix for the 4a is to remove the chuck and install a chuck plate with some standard hole patterns to make it possible to slap on other options - 4 jaw chuck, ER collet, the kind of faceplate you’re talking about. Might be easier to just make a new rotary attachment than to try to alter the MR one. 

[jv]

PMM, I ran across a video the other night I thought had a great idea. It was one of Stepcraft's 4th axis videos. The guy made a round stock piece to attach their wood to and then that small piece would go into the 3 jaw chuck. The round piece was slotted to accommodate the 3 jaws to actually slide ....into the round adapter as the chuck was being tightened. I might try to see if someone with some knowledge of Fusion 360 can design the piece to cut out if I get measurements. It's worth looking into. The video is under "Stepcraft 4th axis support" on youtube.

[jv]

The PP worked like a charm pmm. I appreciate you posting that. Now on to another learning curve with 4th axis stuff in Aspire. I did notice that Aspire is easier in some aspects than using Desk Proto, but I definitely like Desk Proto on a few things like- Adding suckles, sizing, importing stuff. Time will tell on all that. I'll post some pictures when I get time. Text with 4th axis stuff with both programs seems to be the same, a pain in the butt and everything is flipped and reversed depending on what side you are placing text on. What's funny is Aspire 9.5 will show everything in the tool path visualizer being fine when in fact it will not cut like that