Hi all
I've read many posts regarding stepper motor spindles etc. I have a question and don't know of swapaxis will work. I make small alu parts and have made a small live tool setup with a dual spindle ( one for drilling and one for tapping) to tap a M4 hole from the side. During the operation the main spindle on the lathe will stop, drill hole from the side with stepper live tool and then tap it with M4 tap using the second spindle on the live tool (1 stepper driving both spindles through a gear). Tooling will move away, start main spindle again and part off. Here is my problem, my lathe spindle is setup with pwm output from Mach to drive the vfd. How can I program the stepper as a spindle and not a axis for the drilling operation as for tapping I will run it as A axis?

Regards

Have you tried SwapAxis()? I am not sure if it would work or not but may be fine and definitely worth a try.
If not then I fear your only option may be to command the drilling as an A and X Axis move.
Mach4 will support multiple "out f band" axes but when that will be available I have no idea.

Hood

Thanks Hood
I will try a bench test

Hi, I have tried swap axis and it sort of works. The spindle swaps with the a axis but thats about it, I get exactly 30rpm out of the stepper and can't seem to change it. The only thing I can think of is that it picks up the pwm base freq. as the steps per unit as my spindle uses pwm output from Mach. I have changed the motor tuning settings etc. but I still only get the 30rpm. Any suggestions?

Regards
Gordon

Afraid not May just have to calc moves out as if it were an A axis.
Hood

Going to, cheers