[guitarbill]

Hi, I've been looking around for an affordable and well made 4th axis and tailstock for 3d carving wood and machining aluminum. Any ideas?
thanks
gb

[ger21]

The title says precise, and the post says affordable. Depending on your definition of affordable, you may not be able to get both.

[InMesh]

I have a toothed belt set up and noticed that when I put the jockey tensioner on one side ( without the belt being super tight ) I would get movement in the opposite direction only very slightly ,So I hope to remedy it with an opposing Jockey then once the belt wears in there will be no movement at all.

[guitarbill]

Gerry, I understand there's mostly slop to be expected for less than thousands of dollars and lots of people take the cheap import housings and use them to build units with better runout and chucks ect.. I just basically wanted to hear that the gapless harmonic drives with the 50/1 or 100/1 being sold by whoever for less than $500 were a good place to start.
thanks
gb

[awerby]

I don't know about those things, but you could try the Sherline rotary table, which is a solid, tried and proven solution. They do have a small amount of backlash, since they are built around a large planetary gear, but as long as you don't change rotation direction in the middle of a job, it won't be an issue. Sherline also makes compatible chucks, tailstocks, etc to go with them. See CNC-ready Rotary Table

[guitarbill]

Thanks for the link; I'll check it out. One direction without much backlash might just get it done.
gb

[FMTcncs]

What size machine are you looking for?

[guitarbill]

What size machine are you looking for?

Something to carve 28" long bass guitar neck hard maple blanks up to about 3" x 3".
thanks
gb