x3 4th axis, help requested
I know that there are some posts, infact i remember hoss and i having a conversation about 4th axis, but after quite a bit of searching, i cant find it, so i thought i'd just start anew.
so i have my x3, but i have a few parts drawn up that i'm gonna have to have a 4th axis for, so i'm trying to come up with the cheapskate solution.
my first thought was to get something like a rotarty table.. but some of thoes have lots of slop in them, or are pretty expensive..
so then i thought about something like a mini lathe headstock. i could modify it to take a stepper motor, with a good belt setup, and a nice beefy stepper motor, and that should work.. i havent measured it yet, but i was thinking that perhaps i could even use the headstock and tailstock together if i needed to hold a part that way..
if i remember right hoss used his y axis as a 4th axis motor one time.. as as i remember it worked by just running the part normal, and just setting mach so that an inch of "Y" axis movement was an inch of movement around the circumfrence of the part
thoughts, ideas, suggestions, pictures, please.
Grizzly X3, CNC Fusion Ballscrew kit, 3 500oz-in bipolar steppers, 3 203v Gecko's, Linear power supply from Hubbard CNC, Mach 3, BOBcad Pro Art V22, Rhino.