additional axis for tube cutting

[drafterman]

I have a plasma table that uses all four drivers of a Gecko G540 (one for x, two for y, and the z). My question is how do I go about interfacing a fifth driver to control a rotary axis? Do I have to disable the x or the y and use one of these to control the rotary motion? I know machines like Torchmate, Dynatorch and others do this, but from a DIY perspective I am not sure how to proceed. Please advise.

drafterman

[slammedxonair]

my dynatorch uses the Y axis

[Torchhead]

Depends on if you want to cut just round stock (fixed torch) or need to do square tube and rectangular stock. If it's just round you can "steal" the X (cross axis) and use it with a different profile With the 540 there is no way to add a 5th motor and drive so you either have to unplug an axis and move it to your rotary or switch to another system.

We faced a similar dilemma with our 4 axis BladeRunner system. It will support 5 motors (4.5 axis with one hardware slaved) BUT there was no connections or room on our G251 interface card or the BladeRunner case I spent last week designing and testing a cable "breakout" that lets me capture the slaved X or Y signals, map them to a solo Gecko 251 on it's own heatsink/bracket and uses the same power as the main card. You then use the unslaved A axis for a dedicated rotary axis (hooked up all the time). That offers the option to still use the cross axis and use the rotary axis as an indexer to spin and cut the sides of rectangular and square tubing as well as round.

We will be introducing a MACH3 plug-in (by Thanksgiving) that does rotary and indexing for plasma and has a wizard for both round and rect-sqr tubing/pipe. Included is a custom POST for SheetCAM that uses the plug-in and auto "wraps" the cuts on round and does all the moves for rect-square cuts. This version has our "TUBESLICER" basic application that lets you define and cut round, rectangular and square tubing/pipe to length multiple times. The BASIC just does simple straight cutoffs from the control console. . Complex cuts (coves, saddle cuts, etc) still need to be done via a 2D drawing and CAM process. Later add-ins for the TUBESLICER will allow the operator to specify pipe joining (fitting) cuts using both round and rectangular/square tubing by just entering the size of stock and the angles.

BTW, Our MP3000-DTHC unit will Front end your G540 (single cable interface) and open up the signals for a 5th driver add-on and give you a full DTHC all from one parallel port. It will work with the new rotary Wizard and with current and future versions of the TUBESLICER application. The rotary Wizard and TUBESLICER BASIC is free for existing or future CandCNC MP3000-DTHC and BladeRunner Dragon-Cut owners.


TOM Caudle
www.CandCNC.com

[smilewizard]

Is this screen set available?

[Torchhead]

Is this screen set available?

Yes. It is part of the Rotary Cutting Wizard for our systems. The screen needs our custom rotary plug-in for MACH since all of the "smarts" about figuring the rotational setups based on the circumference (or width and height) of the tubing are in the plug-in. It automatically makes changes in the axis calibration to wrap the 2D design you load (g-code) around the pipe.

The Rotary cutting wizard is a free download on our website on the Manuals page.

TOM caudle
www.CandCNC.com