I am almost done with the retrofit on my mill and am now looking at the 4th axis options. The rotary tables that Ajax sells are just too expensive right now so that leaves me with a couple of options: Buy a used rotary table and retrofit it, or build my own. I can either buy Ajax's 4th axis drive, which is still a bit pricey, or I can try to use a different drive. Most of the low cost 4th axis systems are stepper driven which is fine for my 4th axis projects because they will typically be small and low volume.
So my questions:
What drives are compatible with the Ajax controller (what have you successfully used)?
Can I run a stepper driver with the Ajax Control?
Anyone build a 4th axis using a rotary table? Any advice?