Has anybody used a 4-th axis head mount like this and did it work very well?
I've been looking at all of the 3axis units but will need to undercut more and don't want a lathe style rotation.
This is what i've been thinking about. The small hole at the top of the large gear is for a zero locator (ir transmitter/reciever pair) actual hole would be very small. Use an idler gear to connect the stepper to the motor. At zero a simple solenoid could lock the gear in place using the top gear spacing.
The back plate keeps it from rotating all the way around (switches for stop points added of course).
I could get a decent angle without having to use a complex wiring setup for the z axis and router power. It wouldn't rotate around itself and twist the cables to pieces. Of course the angle would depend on the router mount and table size.
I could make a stiff enough gang beam making a sandwich of mdf, foam, and fiberglass with a pipe and bushing insert. I'm going back and forth between thoughts of using a smaller spindle and smoothing out a piece of copper plumbing pipe for the bushing or, trying my hand pouring a babbit bearing.
I was shown Mach3 and its configurability would work for this head.
The large mounting plate and spindle would be an aluminum disc with an adaptor to either 2 or 3 inch steel plumbing pipe.
The z-axis would use a spindle extension with a floating brace to get an extra couple inches of travel to make the angle usable.
Right now its just an idea, if anybody has a better one let me know please.