Would it be possible to cut a worm shaft on a mill with mach? ?

For this very slow spindle speed is required. From 1 - 10 rpm. and synhronized movement ( like threating ) .

example: if worm shaft is 20mm diameter, then we have 3.141592 x20 = 62,83mm
2 flute module 1.5 end mill cutter speed 1000 rpm. 0.1mm cut / flute we get 1000 x 0.2 =200 mm.
that means 200 / 62,83 would be 3,18 rpm worm shaft speed.

Could mach count and calculate this?

Hi,
Mach enacts Gcode. What you have described is a 4axis mill program, if you have a 4axis mill then yes you can do it.
Mach itself does not do the calculation.....that is in the Gcode which is usually composed by a CAM program.

Craig

Hi,
may I suggest downloading Mach3 as a demo and have a look at one of the Wizards that come with it.

The Wizard I'm thinking about is Spline/Gear cutting. It wont do a worm gear but if you enter the data for a spline say it will
generate Gcode which can then be run with Mach. With a spline the material rotates axially to the next spline to be cut, the spline
is cut and then the material is advanced again. In CNC terms this is called '4th axis indexing'. To do a worm gear the A axis has to rotate
slowly in co-ordination with the XY and Z axes which is somewhat more advanced.

This wizard should at least allow you to see how Gcode in generated which is thereafter enacted by Mach and your machine.

Craig