Hi all,
Proud new owner of the Rotary 4th Axis. While setting it up, I noticed that the tailstock is not perfectly aligned with the rotary. See these pictures:
I don’t see a way to adjust alignment - am I missing anything?
It’s not the jaws that are misaligned—I can rotate the headstock, and all four jaws hit the live center in exactly the same spot.
Are the tubes bent? Are the jaws possibly poorly machined? Or maybe they were stamped with the wrong 1,2,3,4 sequence? Try lining them up in order
to verify the progression.
I have the same issue, on the underside of the rotary there are 4 screws, on the tail & headstock, I loosened mine enough to wiggle them a bit, getting it slightly more aligned but its still not perfect, not sure what else to do.
This is very unfortunate. Kinda makes it hard to be a “proud new owner” of something that cost twice as much as it should, takes forever to receive, and still doesn’t hit the mark.
Please don’t take offense to the question, but are you guys absolutely sure that you put the jaws in the correct order?
no offence at all, I have reseated my jaws multiple times, everything seems good that way. I agree this one is a bit of a tough pill to swallow, being delayed multiple times, the BB firmware not working correctly forcing manual probing, motor setting not applying, and the post processors not working right either. I guess some of it comes with being an early adopter but its been a struggle
Its not a jaws issue, I can rotate the headstock and see all 4 jaws show the same results. Each 90 degree turn looks exactly the same. If a jaw was off, I would get different distances for different jaws.
I guess I will have to try and wiggle things around - but I expected better quality control and precision.
Hmm, well, the only other suggestion I would have would get removed from this forum immediately, followed by a visit from a couple guys with dark sunglasses. I’m guessing there’s no adjustment built-in to the design since it’s on rails which would negate the purpose of being on rails.
Edit…one last thought…
Is the neck of the live center oval or “lobe” shaped? I’m thinking that there might be some adjustment there…maybe? The fact that it’s knurled makes me think there’s some rotational adjustment. Just thinking out loud. Best of luck fellas.
I contacted support about how to re-align the tailstock, and some pictures of it not lining up. They got back to me over the weekend (amazing support) looks like they are going to replace entire rotary unit, they think the rails might be warped.
Wow…just absolutely wow.
Is this going to be a common problem?
Kinda looking like it already is. If the rails are warped, then it seems that they would have to be warped in the exact same direction, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to slide the center up to the chuck. It also (appears) that the alignment is off in the same direction in these photos. What are the odds that everybody’s rails are warped the same way? It will be interesting to see how many people come to realize this issue. It will be even more interesting to see how it’s dealt with, and how long these folks will have to wait (again) to get a good unit.
SO happy that I bailed on these guys and went elsewhere.
Has anyone measured to see if the tailstock is actually centered between the rails? I’m wondering if it comes down to a manufacturing or design defect. The rails being warped seems most unlikely to me.
I would tend to agree. I do not have mine yet, but it looks as if there is no adjustment possible. That is a design error. Every machinist lathe tailstock has adjustment included. Onefinity is a young company, and this is indicative of growing pains. I hope they get their collective S**T together soon, because it is also the kind of thing that can strangle a young company in the crib. It is bad enough to make customers wait an inordinate amount of time for the product but then to receive a defective one is worse still.
I received my rotary today and checked the alignment between chuck and tailstock because of this post. I tried to measure as best possible holding a ruler and phone to get the pictures. It does seem like my tailstock is offset to the front side. The chuck is very close to being centered. I have not checked to see if I have any wiggle room by loosening up the mounting bolts to get the chuck and tailstock aligned closer.
Adjustment of 4th Axis Rotary
(BB Version Woodworker)
After reading a post about alignment, sure enough mine was slightly off, but correctable.
In my particular case: (using a V bit in the chuck match up with the live center point)
Sideway adjustment….loosened the four bolts under the Chuck Head, and loosened the four bolts under the Live Center. The Chuck Head required slight movement clockwise, the Live Center slight counter clockwise, to perfectly align.
Up and Down adjustment….The Live Center was slightly lower. Using feeler gauge, I estimated a shim would be around .8mm to .9mm (some of you would be better at measuring). Regardless, what worked for me are four layers of index card paper!
Spanning between two tables made setting bolts easy.
If many units are like this, perhaps all it takes is a shim.
Kind of a shame to have fix these really nice rotary axis especially at the price .
Pat
