Rotary Indexer

Discussion specifically about the Shark's bigger brother, the CNC Shark Pro

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spinningwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:28 am

Rotary Indexer

Post by spinningwood »

Any chance we will see a rotary indexer for the shark?

Ed McDonnell

Tim Owens
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:51 pm

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by Tim Owens »

I assume you mean a 4th axis which would allow you to create a pen set or a chess piece.
Yes there is one planned soon an is being tested at Next Wave Automation.
This is an ad on feature to an existing Shark or Pro.

spinningwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:28 am

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by spinningwood »

Hi Tim - A rotary indexer on a 4th axis would be ideal for what I had in mind.

Does the current shark controller support a 4th axis or would a new controller be required?

Ed

wyzarddoc
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:44 pm

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by wyzarddoc »

Ed;
You can run a rotary axis on the shark by just disconnecting the X axis and connecting it to the stepper on the rotary axis. Of course your G code will need to reflect axis rotation in degrees instead of linear inches.
Doc

spinningwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:28 am

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by spinningwood »

Hi Doc - My preference would be to have a turn-key solution for a rotary 4th axis for the shark. Before I bought the shark I considered building my own machine. I decided I wanted to spend my time making things with the machine instead of making the machine. Rolling my own rotary indexer might just be barely within my abilities. I even have a spare lathe that could be cannabalized, but it's a slippery slope. It would be way too easy to suddenly find that I'm spending all my time tinkering with the next great revision to the machine instead of actually making stuff with the machine.

Tim has indicated that he's beta testing something now. If nothing materializes by early next year I'll have to decicde what I'm going to do. Either roll my own (TTT) or look at moving up to something other than a shark ($$$).

Ed

T = Time

NoHoRez
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 6:24 pm

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by NoHoRez »

Hi Tim
Any Idea when and what the cost might be for the rotary indexer?
Also will we need a different controller?
Thanks
NoHoRez

kb8jvw

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by kb8jvw »

Last reply on this subject was Sep. last year. Anything new since then?

Tim Owens
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:51 pm

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by Tim Owens »

The 4th axis is something we have been working with for almost a year now. One of the things I am concerned with is that Vcarve is difficult to use to get it to work properly. We have been trying to get together with Vectric programmers and our schedules have not worked. However, Next week Vectric is coming to Next Wave to go over some of these issues and I am confident that after this meeting we can again move forward with the 4th axis. I will keep you informed.

Tim

mgdesigns
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:28 am

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by mgdesigns »

I am a noob to this forum, but have many years as a desktop cnc 4-axis user. I was going to build a system for 3D jewelry design, and got into woodworking (guitars, etc.) and would be interested in a combo unit that could serve both needs. I need rotary axis control, and accuracy in 0.001" in any axis. Will this system provide this? It would be nice to do flat 3D wood or wax, and also small rotary waxes on the same basic rig. Thanks.
Attachments
antique-ring-3.bmp

Tim Owens
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:51 pm

Re: Rotary Indexer

Post by Tim Owens »

The system is designed to have a resolution of .0005 of an inch in the 3 axis. The Rotary should have the same precision at about 2 inches with it going up as you radiate out. I dont think this would be a problem for you in your application. The issue you might have is that routers can have runout the can give variance unless you use a high precision collette to minimize the effect. Also be aware that this is not designed for harder metals but for light engraving or removing metal at about .03 at a time to prevent bit damage from the high speed routers.
Tim

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