Thinking about getting the rotary for my BB-flavor Woodworker. (Kind of hanging around hoping a sale price better than 775 comes along, since at the moment I only have 1 tiny project that would benefit.) I have occasionally had projects I’ve wanted to use multiple setup angles for, but which would require a lot of screwing around with fixturing to get right, so I’m wondering if these rotaries can manage the forces involved in toolpaths that torqued the piece by cutting out of line with the rotary axis. For example, if you had a 2"x2" piece of walnut and wanted to cut pockets at 60° angles, such that the toolpath would be pushing an endmill through the stock an inch away (on machine Y axis) from the rotary axis, would the rotary be strong enough to resist that torque? I’d like to have the option to set it up in Fusion as conventional 3D toolpaths applied at varying setup angles. Is that an appropriate use case? Do people use it that way, or just for lathe-like toolpaths?
While I have only used my rotary occassionally, I never felt that it didn’t perform as expected.
A couple of things to think about
- the software you are using for rotary applications- I use V-Carve pro and while it will perform rotary functions there are better options such as Deskproto that has more toolpath strategies and setup functions
- Always practice using scrap- this will help you adjust your speeds and feeds ( in rounding operations with a 1/2" endmill I was able to go up to 150 IPM though when using a tapered ballnose for finishing it was more like 30 IPM