Will swap axis work properly with an axis that has a slave?
Might be adding a small sub spindle mounted right next to my main spindle at 90 degrees so I can machine into the face of parts on 4th axis. Getting that spindle to operate at the correct time will be a whole different can of worms, but for now im wondering about swapping my x and z axis so I can still generate code in fusion cam for machining on the face of 4th axis parts with the horizontal sub spindle. My x axis has B slaved to it for dual motor, dual ballscrew. If I use the standard swap axis call for x and z, is slave B going to follow as it should? Or is this going to complicate things?
Re: Will swap axis work properly with an axis that has a slave?
A lot of times when I do strange stuff that Fusion won't do directly, I post separate operations that generate the tool path that I want, then manually merge the G code. Sometimes this requires manually editing or writing the G code. Fusion will handle 5 axis operations, but may require modifying a post processor to get what you want. How's your Javascript programming skills? :)
Depends on what controller you are using to run your machine. You should be able to slave the B axis to the X (or any other axis) if your controller will handle it.
Sounds like you really need a full on horizontal machining center :)
Re: Will swap axis work properly with an axis that has a slave?
This is giving me a headache :) I think you will have to assign the B axis as a slave to the Z to get what you want. You may be able to do this with a macro. I'm no expert in Mach3, in fact, I avoid it whenever possible.
Re: Will swap axis work properly with an axis that has a slave?
Quote:
My x axis has B slaved to it for dual motor, dual ballscrew. If I use the standard swap axis call for x and z, is slave B going to follow as it should?
If I had to guess, I would say that no, it won't work.
And I just looked at the manual, and it doesn't look like you can slave/unslave through macros.
Re: Will swap axis work properly with an axis that has a slave?
After some more thinking, it would really save a lot of headache if I could just parallel the 2 step/dir pins to the 2 x stepper drivers. That works fine right? Not running 2 steppers on one drive, wiring 2 drives on the same step/dir pins. Any problem with this? Makes the swap axis just as simple as any and also frees up my b axis which I might want to use someday.
Re: Will swap axis work properly with an axis that has a slave?
Why can't you just do a search/replace on the g-code?
Re: Will swap axis work properly with an axis that has a slave?
Can you not do the axis swap and then use G18 (XZ), G19 (YZ) for arcs? You can swap the axes around in Fusion and basically assign any axis as a rotary axis. Many times I post different operations separately and merge the G code to do things that I would not normally be able to do, especially using live tooling in the lathe. Fusion can generate 5 axis tool paths.
This is kind of what we did here to make a couple of these parts, the CNC lathe was busy and we didn't want to do these on the manual lathe. I can't recall if we used turning or 3D milling for this operation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqcw0Digets