My new 4th axis! And, my first post ...

[Wasteland]

Well, here it is - Some photos of the little Vexta stepper, gear-belt pulley, the larger reduction gear, limit switch (every 360) and 5" bison 3-jaw chuck. The spindle housing is anodized aluminum and I has some NSK ball bearings in there. The chuck is mounted to a welded and painted custom faceplate with some plain old cap screws. So, here it is ... By itself, obviously ... I haven't quite picked out the medium-sized milling machine I like . Any ideas? Any comments on this little guy?

[Wasteland]

Oh sorry! Right click and go to those images ...

[Teyber12]

edit* could not get re-upload to work sorry

[HellPhish]

Well, here it is - Some photos of the little Vexta stepper, gear-belt pulley, the larger reduction gear, limit switch (every 360) and 5" bison 3-jaw chuck. The spindle housing is anodized aluminum and I has some NSK ball bearings in there. The chuck is mounted to a welded and painted custom faceplate with some plain old cap screws. So, here it is ... By itself, obviously ... I haven't quite picked out the medium-sized milling machine I like . Any ideas? Any comments on this little guy?

http://img59.imageshack.us/i/rotaryindexer007.jpg
http://img412.imageshack.us/i/rotaryindexer006.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/i/rotaryindexer005.jpg
http://img30.imageshack.us/i/rotaryindexer004.jpg
http://img202.imageshack.us/i/rotaryindexer003.jpg
http://img413.imageshack.us/i/rotaryindexer001.jpg

your pics arent registering at all

[CNC-Joe]

Nice job on the indexer/4th axis rotary, Wasteland!

I have a few questions on your build:
Why are you using a limit swtich every 360 degrees?

What are the details of your spindle? Is it just a tube that was made to mate with the bison 3 jaw chuck? or does it have an internal 5c, R8, 3mt, etc?

What are the details of your gearing and reduction ratio? Did you make it a convenient division of steps? or of degrees rotation?

Is there sufficient holding torque to keep the axis from turning during machining?

Did you build a tailstock for the device?

As you can see - I'm eager to build one...

Thanks for any help that you can give.

CNC-Joe

[LUCKY13]

Good questions CNCjoe, I would also like to add,

WHat is the outer housing made off? And how did you get its shape like that?

BTW, nice job. A good machine would be a G704. Ofcourse mediums size machine is a bit reletive to your own thoughts. What I consider a medium size machine may be bigger than what you think a big machine is.

But as far as benchtop machines, the G704 is probably middle of the road, but still good ridgidity. A RF-45 makes a nice machine also but its starting to get up there in size, but no where as big as a IH mill.

Jess

[fragger6662000]

i think you will have real issues with rigidity if you don't lock the axis and if that is the case then it negates the usefulness of the axis. i are you planning on making it into a spindle as well?