HELP! 5 Axis with clearpaths, acorn and C86ACCP?

Hi there!

I'm completely new to CNC machining and will be building my first CNC router using the Centroid Acorn, Clearpaths and some THK/HIWIN linear actuators on a 300kg precision granite slab.

I have a question regarding how many Axis's I can use. It seems like Acorn only allows 4 axis, but I can see on the C86ACCP board has ports for 5.

Okay, so I hear you saying to yourself "why would you need 5 axis for a router?"

Please refer to the picture I have provided of a rough design for my router and you will see why I require 5 axis.
https://ibb.co/tpL9nBd

As you can see - I need 1 motor for X, 2 motors for Y and 2 for Z.

I know I can redesign the gantry so I would only need 4 axis, but I don't think the Z axis would be rigid enough with just one linear actuator for the Z axis and on top of that, I would lose about 100mm of Y travel.

So my question is - can I slave the 2 Y axis and the 2 Z axis?

Please, please advise.

Thank you,
Boris Touchstone

If you're going for maximum rigidity, why span the longest axis (X) with the gantry instead of the shorter one (Y)? It's hard to tell from your drawing, but are you adding extra linear slides to the Y axis, in addition to those in the actuators? It's going to be hard to get those all aligned correctly. I've seen this sort of double-action gantry in 3D printers, but not so much in CNC machines (that were actually built and working). Are you sure the additional mechanical complexity and expense of, motors, actuators and drives is really worth it, compared to the more conventional approach of raising or lowering the Z axis only?

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Originally Posted by Lemonmcgee1

Hi there!

I'm completely new to CNC machining and will be building my first CNC router using the Centroid Acorn, Clearpaths and some THK/HIWIN linear actuators on a 300kg precision granite slab.

I have a question regarding how many Axis's I can use. It seems like Acorn only allows 4 axis, but I can see on the C86ACCP board has ports for 5.

Okay, so I hear you saying to yourself "why would you need 5 axis for a router?"

Please refer to the picture I have provided of a rough design for my router and you will see why I require 5 axis.
https://ibb.co/tpL9nBd

As you can see - I need 1 motor for X, 2 motors for Y and 2 for Z.

I know I can redesign the gantry so I would only need 4 axis, but I don't think the Z axis would be rigid enough with just one linear actuator for the Z axis and on top of that, I would lose about 100mm of Y travel.

So my question is - can I slave the 2 Y axis and the 2 Z axis?

Please, please advise.

Thank you,
Boris Touchstone

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Yes, you can.

You can use these (2:1) axes splitter Breakout Board from CNC4PC it is a C88 this would be like using just 3 Axis, I have heard that Acorn will have a 6axis Board which is in testing

Why ClearPath

Quote:

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Originally Posted by awerby

If you're going for maximum rigidity, why span the longest axis (X) with the gantry instead of the shorter one (Y)? It's hard to tell from your drawing, but are you adding extra linear slides to the Y axis, in addition to those in the actuators? It's going to be hard to get those all aligned correctly. I've seen this sort of double-action gantry in 3D printers, but not so much in CNC machines (that were actually built and working). Are you sure the additional mechanical complexity and expense of, motors, actuators and drives is really worth it, compared to the more conventional approach of raising or lowering the Z axis only?

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Just checked the Acorn 6 axis is available

Hi,
I use Mach4 and it handles slave motors a little differently.

Every axis can has one master axis motor and up to five slave motors. Your machine is still a three axis (X,Y,Z) machine but has two slave motors,
one on the Y axis and one on the Z axis. In Mach4 terminology you have three axes but five motors.

Depending on the motion control board you use its possibly to momentarily unlink the master and slave motors so that the slave motor can jiggle back and forth a wee bit to 'square' the gantry.
The Ethernet SmoothStepper is an example of a board that can do that.

Craig

Hi,

I agree with matec:

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Why ClearPath

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If you have not already purchased them I would suggest a more comprehensive study of the market, particularly Delta, DMM and Clearpath. Clearpath are more
expensive and have many performance drawbacks compared to the more conventional Delta and DMM servos.

Craig