4th axis servo controlled rotary table build

Hi everyone,

I am getting ready to build a 4th axis for my CNC mill. I should be getting the rotary table in the mail in about a week. I will be posting pictures as I go along .

The rotary table is one from eBay. It is of the 8" variety. I believe the brand is CME.

The servo and drive is from Leadshine and is 400w.

Here are a couple pictures of the servo and drive:

 

Great project, I'm watching!

 

Great project, I'm watching!
View attachment 254064

Thanks!

 

I should be getting the rotary table in this coming week. I don't have a chuck for it yet, but I plan to get one for it some time soon.

 

I did this exact job a few years ago. You will love this added capability.

 

I did this exact job a few years ago. You will love this added capability.

I can't wait! One of the things I have been wanting to make is gears and having a servo controlled rotary table will get rid of the need for dividing heads.

What software did you decide on for your 4th axis work? Fusion 360 has been very slow in coming up with a good 4th axis solution. Their CAM software can really only do indexed 4th axis and not live 4th axis(it can do live, but only in a couple special cases for finishing work). I found posts on their forums from early 2016 where they said they would have a solution soon...

I saw this software called "DeskProto". I don't know anything about it, but it looks like it can do live 4th axis, and the price is much better as compared to the big players out there.

 

I am watching some of their videos. It looks like their software is better suited for soft material work because the tools don't appear to be able to do any helical ramps into the work, but rather plunge moves. BUT, the software is live 4th axis capable.

 

I have a shelf full of gear hobs...
I use electronic gearing with my control, Camsoft, to quickly knock out any gear.

Yep, CAM software for 4rth axis is hard to come by. Got a fairly easy work around. its a piece of cake to change the encoder counts per unit length in the control. So, lay out your project with X being the X axis and Y being the circumference of your part. Then take the resulting Gcode and change Y to A. Of course, this does not work for code sections that do have a Y move. You got to run that separate.

 

It just came in this morning !!

Ugh! This thing is a boat anchor ! Time to tear the box apart and get it out !

 

It seems to be nicely built and I can't hardly tell if there is backlash present. I would have to put an indicator on it to see how much there is.