haas tm1p 4th axis

hi folks some help required please.

I have a haas tm1p that had the 4th axis control module fitted before purchase. At the time i had no need for the actual 4th axis rotary/table , but, now do. Having priced the haas 4th axis they are out of my price range. (the job i have been asked to do is a prototype so dont want to invest huge amounts of money till i am sure it will pay for itself)

Having looked around the net i have spotted some manual rotary table conversions with stepper motors fitted.

Can some one please advise if this is an option and if so how do i go about connecting it up ?

or any other non haas rotary thay may be feasable (cheaper)?

As i have already the 4th axis option on my haas and a cam programme that will do 4 axis machining.

Many Thanks

Paul

A couple of years ago a member on this forum tried to find out the information needed to interface a non-Haas rotary table to the Haas 4th axis in the machine without any success. Haas, not surprisingly, would not provide any information.

I think you will find you are out of luck if you want to do true 4th axis machining. If all you need is indexing not continuous motion synchronized with the other axes you probably can Heath Robinson something together but this does not need the 4th axis in the machine.

thanks for the reply Geof,

unfortunately it is "continuous motion synchronized" i require as i have been asked to machine a helix type piece.

I have tried a practice part using the normal 3 axis. machine half then flip part 180 degrees. It works but due to the nature of the helix it cant machine it all.

Paul

could there be hope ?

was doing more searching and found this "haas cnc homemade indexer"

http://www.youtube.com/user/pit202#p/u/6/v4q2hR4uDf4

any ideas how he did it ?

Paul

Thats not a true 4th axis, but an indexer. You can implement that with steppers and the serial output control, no need for the 4th axis option.

As you see in the videos, the serial controlled indexer cannot turn in sync with the mill movements, but only as a separate step.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paul h

http://www.youtube.com/user/pit202#p/u/6/v4q2hR4uDf4
any ideas how he did it ?
Paul

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yes, I have , it is quite simple :

Haas RS232 -> mine AVR controller -> UHU servo board -> DC Serco motor -> the mechanica part ;-)

Few people (on this forum ) tried to make their own RS232 controllers for sale ( they posted a thread too ) , it is a while , and I didn`t saw any effects.

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Peter

Hi Peter, found you here after finding at youtube the 4th axis/indexer you made for the haas minimill, I just purchased an harmonic drive for this same purpose. I saw in the coments that you saw the blue prints here at cnczone, but after looking for a while I did not found them, do you happen to remember where you got your inspiration?


Pablo

Any luck with figuring out this interface?

Pretty easy to convert an old table over. I bought the cable set, motor, and zero return switch from Haas for the 5c 4th, installed everything to a old Boston matic table and set the correct counts. 1200 later all good to go.

I was hoping there was an easy way to do it with generic parts, it sounds like you just replaced all the electronic guts with the haas stuff? All that was only $1200?
I have the A axis drive installed, with the indexer parts am I still limited to indexing or can I have 4 axis interpolating simultaneously?

If you have the card, full 4th. I could have saved a couple dollars buying the motor right from yaskawa, however all this stuff from Haas literally just plugged in to each other, and no way I could have made that nice of cable set for what they charged.