[GarageFiddler]

I am in the beginning stages of designing a machine with two (indexing only) rotaries and two spindles (tool change, not simultaneous). So far thats 6 motors; X, Y, Z1, Z2, A, and B. My first thought was to have two complete Z axis, each with a separate VFD. I'd also prefer to have two driven screws on the X, but that makes 7 motors. Can this be done with Mach3? My understanding is that dual motors for the X are usually slaved. Am I stuck choosing between slaving C to X or running a Z2? Or is there a way to slave C to X and still run a swapaxis macro to control both spindles with the same VFD? Both spindles won't ever need to run at the same time.

Any help or suggestions are welcome. I have a few other things to firm up and I'll start a new machine build post once I get a good model drawn. The machine will be mostly used for production runs of small (2" diameter x 1" tall) cylinders, sort of like turning a hockey puck into swiss cheese, but I'm designing bigger than I need now for unknown future projects.

Thanks!

[hanermo]

1st post ?
And dual spindles .. well - good luck.
There are any nr of solutions to do this, and all are somewhat complex, and all are somewhat costly.

Mach3 will not support this natively, and Mach4 can support this in lots of ways, depending on the controllers.
Whats your budget ?

Ie you are talking about something complex - can you afford good controllers ?
How much do you want to do in hw ?
What are the goals re: reliability, accuracy and crash detection ?
Errors with chips ?

Do you protect the other spindle, or swap it out ?
With what hw ?

Any nr of servo drives can slave axis themselves.
So can some controllers, ie motion-control engines.

Again, these are easily 1000$ per axis (servos) or about 1000$ for a good 6-axis controller.
Mach4 will/may be able to drive multiple controllers simultanously.
Again, your expectations and budget will have a huge impact on the best path.

[ger21]

You can use one VFD, but you can't really use swap axis, as you'd still need to use two axis, as you'll be swapping between them.

You can run your two X axis from a single motor with belts, or, you can try to run both motors from a single set of step/dir pins. Some breakout boards may support this.

[GarageFiddler]

Thanks for the input. You'll have to forgive my drafting skills but here's my rough draft with the timing belt added, still many details to figure out. Drawing only shows one of the X rails. The only parts I already have are the rotaries (8" and 4") and the rails and bearings. I'll keep up the research and when I have a better handle on hardware and screws I'll be back! Thanks again! (THK SHS15). Attachment 248286

[mactec54]

GarageFiddler

Are the parts that you want to make the same on each rotary axes, if so then all your axes could be slaved, & it could be done with Mach3, plus a smooth stepper or similar Board, your 2 spindles with 2 VFD Drives also could be controlled with one PWM output

Your 2 A axes could have ( 1 ) motor with a belt drive 1:1 to the other rotary A axes