SideWinder Lathe/Indexer

[Gary Campbell]

Here are a couple videos showing a few of my first cuts on a new Rotary machine I am building. The first shows a hand coded file that octagons off the blank, rounds it, then cuts a wooden bolt design. The second shows the CNC back knife cutting a profile.

(WWWdot)youtube.com/watch?v=QPp1itlsbnI

(WWWdot)youtube.com/watch?v=_yznJrzd730

[Richard Coers]

Wonderful machine Gary. I sure would enjoy some shots from further back to understand what the machine looks like. Very nice work!

[ed vitanovec]

Very nice work! Did you design and build the rotary axis, what reduction ratio?

[Bruce Page]

If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing writing the code for that tool slide must have been a challenge.

Very interesting.

[Gary Campbell]

Bruce...
It has been an interesting, and fun project. Actually I was able to generate the toolpath for the back knife using VCPro by positioning my profile vector and then placing a number of offsets that formed my "pass depths". Only took a few extra minutes. It was posted with a customized postP that had the spindle commands and all Z commands removed. It looked like it would work "on paper", and I'm glad that it turned out that it worked on the machine also. It's been a fun learning experience as this is my first foray into things rotary.

Ed....
I purchased the head and tailstock units, 4.8:1 on the indexer, 1.8:1 on the servo. The rest I made in my shop.

[Gary Campbell]

Bruce...
As an FYI to all.... Here is the process, and I believe it is not difficult.
I set my home position at X6 Y3
Make an exact profile of the turning relative to the X axis as its center. (shown as lower line)
I then added a 45* short line as a lead in/out to each end
I offset that line out .060" selecting the new
I then made 4 more offsets at 1/8"
Those offsets were trimmed to a line at the top of the .060 radius
The trimmed vectors were joined with a straight line
Node edit to ensure all new vectors have start point in desired location
Select them in order from top (shallow) to bottom (deep)
Toolpath ON vector (any depth) checking follow vector selection order.
Post using pp that has Z coordinates and spindle on removed
That's it!! Takes longer to write it up than do!




Profile Test.JPG

[Larry L Edinger]

Gary,
I would like to know how you made SideWinder.
Thanks, Larry

[Gary Campbell]

Larry...
Send an email to caseworxmfg - gmail.com with a phone number and we can chat
GC