New 4th Axis router built

[9r2a5m70]

Hey all, just got the new 4th axis router up and running. I'm having an issue with the indexer turning the proper amount. After reading the forums some people where talking about gear boxes.
We purchased the 6" indexer from shopbot along with a alpha inventors kit. We have it setup to turn a max of a 48" Diameter part. I ran my first program on it today with the indexer and the toolpath seemed to be working fine. I paused it to look at something and it wouldn't resume. I then used the shopbot console to rotate the part 180 degrees, since I had done half already. But it only traveled about 10% of the way.
I'll post a picture or two of it tomorrow when I get in to work.
Thanks

[ken_rychlik]

You will be changing the unit values.

Shopbot should be able to tell you what to use to work with the indexer.

You can get there with trial and error and using ratio's but thats the hard way.

[9r2a5m70]

Thanks, I've looked into that a little bit. I'll give shopbot a call and see what information they have.

[bill.young]

hey Ryan,

If the file cut correctly at first, and everything was the right size, then it sounds like you have (or at least had) the correct unit values. Your unit values could have got corrupted at some point, and ShopBot can tell you the correct ones.

You probably already know this, but one thing to remember is that in general the angle measurements are in "absolute" degrees and not relative to your current angle value, like almost all ShopBot files and moves. So if your indexer axis was at 170 degrees when you stopped the file, and you gave it an "MB, 180" command, it would only go 10 degrees (stopping at 180 degrees) and not turn a full 180 degrees.

Of course all of this depends on how you're generating your toolpath and if the indexer axis had been re-zeroed in the file.



Bill

[myxpykalix]

Ryan thats what i call a SUPER INDEXER...that is very cool. I have wanted to do something like that only mount the indexer below the table surface about in the center of the Y in order to 3d carve the skirt of a round table.

I had not done that because I was told that when you get that big around you "lose resolution". Were you carving anything on this or just rounding it? Do you have any pics? Did it turn out ok? Good job!

[gene]

What do you make with that? That is some serious Z height:)

[9r2a5m70]

Jack, Yeah it's going to be a great tool for us. I'm still working the details out on everything. Here is a pic in progress, the finished path there is only at 20%. I'm doing sections at 5% increments to see what the finish cuts look like. It looks to be pretty smooth though. We do have a slight wobble due to the gantry being so tall that the Y carriage sits on. So we are going to put some cross bracing in. Should get rid of some of the chatter (which you may not see in the picture).
Gene, here is a sample pic of what we could make off of it. But we will make tooling, characters, jets... what ever we can!!

Over all dimensions of working area is 9' x 7', with new rails we can get an exra foot each direction (we just used spare parts we had). The Z is a SHopbot retro 24" travel. I do have a question, When you create a new toolpath for the indexer is there a way to put a line in the beginning of the code telling what Z ht to retract to in case the stop (not E-stop, program stop) is pressed to pause the machine. As of right now it either travels down to 1, or stops right where it's at.

[michael_schwartz]

Looks like you probably saved a few hundred thousand dollars by building that :D