I have some questions and some problems setting up a 4th axis and any help would be appreciated.
The Setup:
Rhinoceros 4.0
RhinoCAM 2.0
Mach 3
K2CNC
I just bought a 4th axis indexer from K2 and mounted it along the Y axis.
I believe I have it setup correctly in Mach 3. In other words 'G0 A360' will make exactly 1 revolution and G0 A0 will put it back.
Since I'm using axis A on the Y axis (as opposed to the default X axis) I edited the machine profile in Rhino CAM to swap A and B in the post processor. Is this the best way to do this? Or should I set it as B in Mach 3?
I did a test "Air" cut and everything seems to work except for the speed of the rotary axis. I set the feed rate to 45 in/min for the 4th axis roughing operation and it seems to be turning at 45 degrees/min.
Is there a way to get either RhinoCAD or Mach3 to properly calculate angular speeds or do I need to figure them out myself? Or did I miss something basic in my configuration?
Oh, one more thing. Should I zero my Z axis at the center of rotation? It seems to make the most sense to me so I wrote a macro to set it there based on a tool touch plate. Or is it more common to touch off the stock.
Thanks in advance!