I have a BB Pro Woodworker and have been using a micro Taig lathe mounted to the table, with a lathe tool bit mounted to the front of the spindle. To get the lathe functionality out of Fusion (roughing passes, fine passes, facing), I have been redefining the axes in my machine like this:
x=y
y=z
z=x
This worked for a while, but this has been leading to finicky troubleshooting issues lately - specifically the Y motors don’t want to move together properly without several restarts - and I kind of want to stop tricking the machine, and start tricking the programming instead. The Z axis is always the rotating axis, which is why I have to redefine my axes. Part of creating a “New Setup” is defining the “Z Axis (Rotary Axis)”, so it really won’t allow me to just click on the Y axis and work from there.
I thought I could replace G17 with G18 or G19, but that’s only relevant to arcs from what I now understand.
My other thought was to work with a 4th axis work flow, even potentially using my live spindle as the cutting tool to simplify the setup, but I can’t find a way of doing multiple step downs short of the same machining process multiple times with each one leaving a different amount of stock. Is there an easier way to accomplish what I’m aiming for here?