Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: amstanley on August 06, 2017, 05:22:48 PM

Title: Surfacing on Rotary Axis
Post by: amstanley on August 06, 2017, 05:22:48 PM

Long shot but wondering:

There are wizards for surfacing for tool down on X and Y axis: I wonder if  there is a similar wizard for 'surfacing' on an A axis?

I have a bunch of fence posts, and a CNC with a rotary axis. I want to 'surface' the posts so they are round:
essentially the math is they start with a (squared off) radius of sqrt(2*postwidth^2)/2 and end as a cylinder with radius postwidth/2

Is there a wizard where I can plug those values + length of workpiece and get g-code back to go ahead and round it out?

If not, how would YOU easily do that? Any advice welcomed!

thanks in advance

/malcolm

Title: Re: Surfacing on Rotary Axis
Post by: rcaffin on August 13, 2017, 06:53:51 AM

Not that I am aware of.
And using an RT as a lathe is messy. Yes, it's possible, but SLOW.
Would you settle for octagonal posts? That's easy, and looks good.

Cheers
Roger

Title: Re: Surfacing on Rotary Axis
Post by: amstanley on August 13, 2017, 10:26:59 AM

The reason I am asking is that I am using DeskProto for G-Code generation and it assumes a cylindrical stock,
so just trying to understand easy options for the workflow.
setting it up with square stock and getting the desired outcome is possible,
but better to start with everything normalized, if that is possible..

Guess I have my answer on this.
Might have to write a g-code generator of art as a side project...

Thanks!

Title: Re: Surfacing on Rotary Axis
Post by: ger21 on August 13, 2017, 11:28:22 AM

V Carve Pro has a gadget to do it.