No I only made one for metric. You can change the units in the post processor to inches if you want and save it. Change G21 to G20, change UNITS = “MM” to UNITS = “INCHES”, and change your post processor name to whatever just make sure it matches the actual name of the file.
I feel like a total boob. Well I’m gonna try this in a couple of hours and let you know. Here is the toolpath output. I don’t see a G20 in the file. Could you make a new file and put it here. I’m not good at Gcode either.
Yeah that’s the output. I’m talking about the actual gcode file you downloaded to load into vcarve. It’s the .ngc file. And G20 is what you have to put into the gcode to make it inches. You see where the output says G21, which is the gcode now telling it to use MM. I’m not at home but when I get home tonight I can change it if you haven’t before then.
You mean the PP File? I’ll look at it.
Yes the actual post processor file. There are lots of documentation on editing post processors. Vectric has some resources on it also. Which tells you what the different commands are.
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OK I set my machine up. Moved the A directly over my 4th Axis and set as A to 0. I then Homed my machine. Next I set my project with X at the left end of the project and Z at the center of the square piece or at the tip of the tail stock of the 4th Axis.
I then ran the Project toolpath (mm) with machine set to mm and got the note below.
Don’t home the machine and try again. I never home my machine, just move to the starting position and set to zero. See if that helps any. Not sure I’ve never gotten that error.
OK. I’ll try that and let you know.
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I did what you said and it moved back and forth along the X axis as it should. Although it was showing changes in the A as it moved, the Chuck did not turn. For the Z axis it did not move down. I did notice there is nothing in the gcode file for the Z axis.
File from above. No Z showing.
Is there a simple test file I could upload somewhere to test X,A, and Z movements?
Yeah it looks like you are using the wrong post processor still for it. You are using the laser rotary post processor. That post processor only moves X and A. You have to use the rotary post processor here for the Z axis to move.
And for simple test of the axis. You can just input commands to the mdi interface on the controller or just draw a box in vcarve around a cylinder to test all the axis and not have the spindle and chuck near each other so they won’t crash or anything.
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OK Roger. I’m not sure why I used that one. I’ll try it out tonight or early tomorrow and get back with you. Thanks for your patience.
Boo
Roger please don’t get frustrated with me because I think I’m close to having it.
OK first my wiring is working for A because I did several MDI inputs in mm from G0 A10 to G0 A1000. Then back to G0 A0. I watched it turn.
I loaded the new PP above in Vetric. I deleted my Rounding toolpath, and made a new Rounding toolpath just to make sure. Saved it, loaded to machine. I took my piece out just in case and set a zero X and Z. The A was at zero. I played the toolpath and it seemed to be working accept no turn on A.
I’m wondering if maybe the motor settings may be causing it not to turn. I did the settings you said.
Motor 1
Change to A
Set travel/rev to 360
Motor 2
Disable/disconnect
I’m attaching my toolpath file to see if you can figure it out. BTW, I used mm for everything to match your PP file. Machine also set to Metric.
Rounding Toolpath.ngc (2.0 KB)
Ok zero your A axis and try on the mdi G1A360F300. And see if it rotated. The gcode file you sent looks fine and it should work. And if your rotary is rotating with mdi commands and the controller then it should work with the gcode file you attached.
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OK I’ll try that tomorrow when I get back in the shop. When I ran the MDI it went super slow. Does the F300 speed it up? The Motor 1 steps/rev are 200 but I don’t think that would slow it down. As I said I watched the file movement and it paused at X and Z but seemed to fly past A. But I’ll give it a try.
The F is just setting a feed rate for that command. I ran your gcode just now in the shop and everything worked fine. Whenever you mess with it tomorrow send me a picture of your motor configuration, wiring into the controller, and the controller screen. Just so I can look at all of those.
My steps/rev are 1200. So yours needs to be that also I would guess if you got the same one as me. Because your step-angle should be 0.3 degrees since yours is the same rotary as mine.
That makes sense to me on the revs. I found below on the Vetric Forum.
“What I’ve learned so far… X values changed to A values are considered degree per minute rather than inches per minute. So if you have ordinary 200 +/- ipm feed speed set for any tool cutting around the rotating object it will cut VERY slow. You need to edit any tool used to cut around in the A direction to use a very high feed speed. A value that would be comparable to 200ipm on a 4" cylinder would be 4" x pi = 12.57" in 360 degrees. 200/12.57 = 15.91 revolutions per minute. 15.91 X 360 = 5728 , the IPM feed speed you’ll need to give X moves that become A moves around your rotary axisso they’ll seem like 200ipm cuts. There is a simple formula in there you could create to use block diameter, desired feed speed, and a multiplying value. My mind is not up to coming up with it tonight though.”
So I’m thinking I will try it out and send you the pics.
Hey DaBooBear,
I would have liked to know who said that and where, but you forgot the citation for this quotation (tip: you get the citation information by clicking on this button:)
Do you know you can use the “blockquote” functionality for displaying text that is a quotation? The “blockquote” button is the fifth icon in the top button bar of your composer window. It would make it look like this:
What I’ve learned so far… X values changed to A values are considered degree per minute rather than inches per minute. So if you have ordinary 200 +/- ipm feed speed set for any tool cutting around the rotating object it will cut VERY slow. You need to edit any tool used to cut around in the A direction to use a very high feed speed. A value that would be comparable to 200ipm on a 4" cylinder would be 4" x pi = 12.57" in 360 degrees. 200/12.57 = 15.91 revolutions per minute. 15.91 X 360 = 5728 , the IPM feed speed you’ll need to give X moves that become A moves around your rotary axis so they’ll seem like 200ipm cuts. There is a simple formula in there you could create to use block diameter, desired feed speed, and a multiplying value. My mind is not up to coming up with it tonight though.
– Source: Re: 4th axis on my probotix cnc by 4DThinker » Mon Oct 12, 2015 1:16 am
OK thanks but didn’t want to quote the whole thing. Didn’t know how to just quote a snippet.
Hey DaBooBear,
sure, but citation information is always nice.
The fullquoting is always meant to be reduced to the relevant part you like.
You can mark the part you’d like to quote first. Then click on quote. At least it works this way in discourse.org forum software 
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