J Tech Rotary Accessory - considering buying one

[lonmcd (Lonnie McDougal)]

Have you bought a Jtech Rotary Accessory, and is so would you tell me your experience with it? I’m considering buying on to go with my J Tech 24w Laser on an Elite machine.

Is it easy to set-up and remove from the machine when not needed?
Are the instructions adequate on how to connect it to the Masso Controller?
Any additional wiring or connectors needed?
Are you happy with its performance.

Thanks, in advance.

[Dustoff00 (Dean)]

I have one and will be testing it this weekend. I had purchased before I had done the Elite upgrade and during a temporary move. So had to order an Elite conversion kit before I even got started (you can order with the correct kit from the beginning now. It is definitely just for lasering and look to be well built. Easy to assemble, and will know how it works this weekend. I will be lasering an odd shaped glass stein, so not sure if that will be ideal as it may not be completely symmetrical. I still plan on getting one with a chuck for wood, but this looks like it will be fairly simple and repeatable… Wish me luck…

Came with a cable to plug in play install on Masso board and into the housing on the back. Other cables connect as expected but the cables are not very long… I may want to use an extension cable in the long run.
Will try to answer the rest once I play with it this weekend.

[lonmcd (Lonnie McDougal)]

Thanks, Dean. Hope it goes well. Look forward to your feedback about it.

[MstrODstr]

@Dustoff00
Thanks Dean. I have purchased and assembled one to go with my newly minted “Elite” woodworker (upgraded from original); but, haven’t had the time to try it out yet. I would have expected more out there in Youtube land; but, information on this is pretty scarce.

Anxious to see your results and recommendations.

Jay

[Almtchncn]

Onefinity Elite Masso Rotary Installation - For Laser Use Only

I have a Jtech rotary, follow this video and it will work fine. I have had no problems with mine.

[Almtchncn]

J_Tech_Photonics_Rotary_Instruction_Manual_V1_5.pdf

Look at this PDF file from the JTech website and look at the video I posted from YouTube. I was able to hook mine up with no issues.

[lonmcd (Lonnie McDougal)]

Thanks. That was very informative. It looks like I would have to unplug my tool setter and plug the rotary accessory in that slot.

[Dustoff00 (Dean)]

You wont need to unplug the tool setter. There should be a slot for you to add the new cable that connects to Axis A… Pretty simple to just watch the video for that part.

I will do some more testing tomorrow, but I may have to wait until Monday to make more progess.

I use VCarve Pro for my laser so that may be an issue.

My early results below. I may do a quick video to summarize all that I discover over the next few days.

1. I needed to create a new Post processor that swapped the Y for A, I will post some info on that soon. It was really easy.
2. I had some unintentional offsets that I did not pick up on at first that caused some perplexing behavior until i figured it out. In fact, on my first dry run had to E-STOP and yet still did some damage to the plastic part of the rotary base and one arm. Had some CA and accelerator so made the quick fix.
3. I finally figured out the strange behavior, but when I ran my g-code on a real run, it only moved the rotary a little bit. I think the settings in VCarve in my toolpath for A axis are not aligned with the settings they used to set up for Lightburn. So I may need to adjust something and thinking Jay and folks at Jtech would be . V-Carve is thinking the object is 2 1/2" wide and the laser only etched about ¼" so very little movement in the a rotation.

More to come…

[lonmcd (Lonnie McDougal)]

Thanks, Dean!

[Woodworking_Pilot (E D)]

Lonnie,

I purchased the J-Tech rotary back in November (BB version) and have been very happy with it. I had been looking at getting something to do glasses and what not with the laser, and then I finally had someone ask me to make 400 pint glasses as table gifts for a holiday party. The rotary worked like a charm. As far as moving it out of the way when it is not in use, it is fairly simple from my experience. Since I am using the BB controller I have to swap out motor cables to use the rotary and make one change to the machine settings, but even doing that it only takes me about 3 minutes to set up or take down the rotary.

Erik

[lonmcd (Lonnie McDougal)]

Thanks, Erik. That’s very helpful.