4th axis preview date

[spinningwood]

Hi Dash - I can't provide any answers (I don't know) about the cost of the other components that would be required from Nextwave to integrate the lathe into the Shark as a 4th axis.

However, for table legs, I think you could probably make do initially with the spur drive and live center that comes with the lathe. For additional projects later you would want to consider adding additional equipment (e.g.faceplates, a good scroll chuck, pen mandrel (for lots of projects beyond pens), screw chuck, collet chuck, drill chuck...). You could get by with some or none of those. It all depends on what you want to do and how easy you want to do it. Easy generally costs more money.

If nobody posts a better answer to your question, you might consider putting a call into nextwave to see if you can get a ballpark price on the nextwave part of the 4th axis before committing to the lathe. Unless you just want to learn how to turn wood. As a woodturner, I always recommend learning how to turn wood. If you want some additional thoughts on that, just ask.

Ed

[basecircle]

Hi I have this idea ratteling in my head.Let me run it by the fourm.I see you are beta testing the 4th axis.(C-axis).I see you are useing a small wood lathe to do the testing
I would imagine you would attach a servo to the head stock.Correct?And run a cable to the shark.well remember this is just a thought.what if I put a small rotary table onthe shark.And a small tail stock.Say 3'' dia.And bought a stepper motor and cable from NWA.Pulled the handle off the rotary table and put a coupler from the motor to the table.(I would i think I would have to gear It down?)And eather installed a spur center or a small chuck to the rotary table.And a dead center in the tailstock.Now here comes the hard part.What software would I use to tell the shark to use the (C-Axis)?I see in my v-carve pro they show a wrapped (gadgets).But would this tell the shark to run the (C-Axis?)When you come out with the axis will we have to buy Aspire? I just was thinking about this and wonder If this would work? Thanks Basecircle

[Dash]

Hey there Gents!!!
Ed I appreciate your input. I have always wanted to learn turning wood....Now is a good of time as any!! And with the improvements from Nextwave, its almost a necessity (well, kinda). Thats the story I'm telling the better half, anyway!!
I am going to go ahead and order the machine and start learning. When I get time....Thats a laugh..I am sure you will hear from me again...
Thanks a million!!!!!

Dash

[spinningwood]

Hi basecircle - There are a couple issues that would need to be addressed for your idea to work:

1) The gearing on your setup using a rotary table would likely be very different than what NWA ultimately releases. This would mean you (and everybody else that rolled their own) would need to have access to the motor tuning parameters of the control panel software. This also introduces the possibility of users with this access screwing up their system big time. I'm sure you wouldn't, but NWA would get flooded with calls from all those other users who changed something they shouldn't have to a value they shouldn't have.

2) Unless you spend really big bucks for a quality rotary table there will likely be a significant amount of backlash. This would degrade your carving results. Possibly to the point where you would not find the results acceptable. It all depends on what you want to do. Backlash on simple leg spindles would be less of an issue than on something that has a lot of detailed carving.

3) In my opinion, the best sofware for rotary carving is Aspire. VCarve lacks the ability to project carvings onto a 3D model. If all you wanted was to carve something on cylinders, vcarve could accomodate it (I believe, I'm trying to remember back to before I upgraded to Aspire). But the full power of the rotary axis is only realized with 3D capapbilities. In my opinion anyway. All comes down to what you want to do.

Here's a quick overview of wrapping. You design your project in the 2D workspace using X, Y and Z. You can preview it in 3D, but the coordinates are still x, y and z. Depending on how NWA sets up their 4th axis, either the x or y (I suspect Y, but don't know for sure. Let's assume Y for the following) will be mapped to the A axis by the post processor. So if you look at the gcode generated for a wrapped toolpath, you will see X, A and Z moves instead of X, Y and Z moves. The A moves would be in degrees instead of inches (or mm).

Alternatively to wrapping, you could do indexing. I don't know if NWA plans to offer this capability. For indexing, you would rotate the workpiece a specific amount, then the shark would carve the part facing the cutter using X, Y and Z linear coordinates. Then you rotate to the next index mark and carve. Repeat until dont. Just like if you had the workpiece secured to your table and were carving it normally and then turning it to carve the next side. The rotary axis just offers the ability to very precisely turn the workpiece (and keep it secure while turning). However, I believe that for indexing to work the way NWA is planning on implementing the 4th axis, X and Z would have to be swapped. I'm just guessing though.

Hope this helped.

Ed

[spinningwood]

Hi Dash - If you are serious about learning to turn wood, consider checking to see if there is an AAW (american association of woodturners) club local to you. The following link will take you to the AAW website where you can check and see how far a club is from you.

http://www.woodturner.org/community/cha ... apters.asp

Dues are usually pretty reasonable (free to maybe $40/year). Most clubs offer extensive libraries of videos and books on all aspects of turning for free checkout by members. Many clubs have mentor programs where an experienced turner will work one on one with you to help you get up the learning curve. Usually for free. The are also demos at the monthly meetings by local and national (even international) pros. You will be amazed at how fast you can come up the learning curve with a little guidance. Oh, and don't forget that most clubs offer easy access to free wood as a benefit of membership!

Another consideration is that the rockler lathe has a minimum speed of 700 rpm. For cnc usage, this will not make any difference. For woodturning, that's a pretty high low end speed for some things. You will need to limit yourself to well balance stock for most turning projects. Probably not a big deal. If you really get bit by the woodturning bug, you will ultimately want to move up to a much bigger/more capable lathe at some point and leave the rockler lathe dedicated to the cnc. Don't get me wrong. The rockler lathe combined with the NWA cnc capability and some basic woodturning skills should let you do plenty of amazing projects. But with a $2,000 lathe or a $5,000 lathe you could be even more amazing. Everybody has to decide how much amazing they can afford.

The other thing to consider is a chuck. A good scroll chuck (like a Oneway Talon) will make all aspects of using the lathe (whether for cnc or woodturning) easier and more capable. But a good scroll chuck doesn't come cheap. You can easily get by without a scroll chuck for spindle work like furniture legs, canes, baseball bats and such. But if you have a desire to take a shot at things like bowls, boxes, hollow forms and such, a scroll chuck is almost (not absolutely, but almost) mandatory. That said, it wasn't that many years ago that turners produced all sorts of work without scroll chucks. They used faceplates, jamb chucks, screw chucks and glue blocks. But if you compare what is considered state of the art turnings today, with state of the art turnings from the pre scroll chuck days, the benefits of using the chuck becomes obvious.

Good luck with the woodturning. Check out the galleries on the AAW site. Show the better half the kind of stuff you can be making for her and all her relatives. That might ramp up her support for your new hobby.

Ed

[basecircle]

Thanks Ed. It's toooooooooooooo deep for me.I will wait till it is released.It was just a thought.Thank you for "getting my mind right"I see what you mean and I can wait.Thank you Rich

[Dash]

Base........
Ed Lost me at 1) Gearing......I am sitting in the sinking wood turning boat next to you...By the way, Hi!! Lol
Wow!!
Ed, I logged on to the AAW site and WOW!!!! Every person on this forum needs to see the other side of the world. There is more than x,y and z... The minds of wood workers are AMAZING.
Ed, thank you for the link. I have many hours to go with the shark. My second thought is to play with a lathe and see what Nextwave comes out with.. I can't wait.

Thanks to all,
Dash
P.S. Anyone have a life raft????

[finaxe]

Yes touch plate and homing switches are this quarter.

Any news about the touch plate?

[DickL]

Hi
I would like to get a touch plate too.

DickL

[DRMRDR]

Any updates on the 4th axis.
Dave