Getting Started With Indexed 4TH Axis Milling

GETTING STARTED WITH INDEXED 4TH
AXIS MILLING
http://www.instructables.com/id/Getting-Started-With-Indexed-4th-Axis-Milling/
Introduction: Getting Started With Indexed 4th Axis

Milling
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In the world of machining two things are

key; Accuracy and Efficiency. Although fantastic parts can be
produced by manual machining tools it is simple fact computer
controlled systems will always be preferable for rapid high tolerance
work. Even the cheapest CNC mill can run circles around manual
systems in the home machine shop. However, when you mill complex
parts CNC systems often require the machinist to manually rotate the
part. This often requires the machine to be re-homed and will always
introduce a certain amount of error into your finished part. Skilled CNC
operators can often minimize this error down to a few thousandths of
an inch. However, Automatic Rotation CNC milling removes the need
to manually rotate the part at all! Having the machine take care of
everything means you maintain absolute machine accuracy with zero
human error and no time wasted resetting your part and machine.
Automatic Rotation CNC Milling With DeskProto
Of course to perform Automatic Rotation milling (also called Indexed

machining) projects you need a few extra parts on top of your regular
3 axis set up:
 A 4th axis either integral or as a detachable unit

 A Indexed machining compatible CAM software package. DeskProto:
Multi Axis Edition is the near undisputed king of low cost multi axis
machining
Keep in mind that depending on your machine the 4th axis may limit
the size and shape of your raw material. It is especially important to
check your clearances on each side of the machines rotation.
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Step 1: Prepare Your CAD Model
For this tutorial I decided to create a small wing shaped blade. This
part could be used to create a little fan or perhaps even a scale jet
engine. There are a few things to keep in mind for automatic rotation
milling. It's a good idea to start with a simple shape and as you get
better and better at creating the CAM and setting up your machine
advance to more and more complex geometries.
Step 2: Prepare Your Stock
I will be using a 1.5 inch diameter piece of wood doweling to create

this part. Because the 1.5 inch stock is too wide for my 3 jaw chuck
I’ve had to cut my stock quite a bit longer than my finished part and
then carve one end down so it will fit nicely into the chuck. Additionally
the extra material will let me use a tailstock to hold the part as it's
being cut.
Step 3: Create Your CAM With DeskProto Part 1
This process is very much like regular 3D milling with DeskProto, If
you’ve read my previous tutorial on getting started with
DeskProto there is not much new here. However there are some tricks
to getting the part to machine properly with automatic rotation milling.
To get started launch the wizard from the DeskProto intro screen.
In this part we will cover the first 3 Sections:
1.Choose your machine and type of milling: First you want to

choose your machine from the list. If you don't see your machine, you
can add it to the list via the Options menu. We will be using Two or
more sides, Automatic rotation as our wizard setting.
2. Open your geometry file and set the scale: Your geometry file
needs to be in .STL format. Once you’ve selected the file, it will show
up on in the main window. Use the settings on this page to adjust your
model until it is the correct size. Additionally, you can use the
orientation options to adjust the angle of your piece. Adjusting the
angle can be helpful to align your model along a specific axis of your
machine.On this page you can specify how many sides you wish to
use. For a wing shape 2 sides is ideal.
3. Set your machining area: This step is extremely useful to limit the
area the machine will work in. I ended up leaving the milling depth
automatic. For this project, we do not need support bridges and the
origin is correct. Keep in mind where the origin is (the origin is the blue
box displayed in the geometry window) because it will be used when
touching off our part. Additionally with Automatic Rotation enabled you
will be creating a operation chainthat will break down into two or
more sides.
Step 4: Create Your CAM With DeskProto Part 2
Now we’ll get into creating the actual tool paths for our mill. With the
DeskProto wizard we only have to run through one set of steps to
produce both sides of our object. You can however go back after
finishing the wizard and adjust the tool paths to be better suited to the
geometry on the different sides of your project.
4. Make the roughing pass: To create our roughing pass, we will first
select our tool. In this case is a 1/8th inch roughing end mill. Then we
will walk through the options one by one. I used a D/5 precision. When
choosing your roughing precision it's important to take several aspects
into consideration. Because I was using a very soft material and a
small end mill I used a coarse precision. This means the tool takes off
more material each pass. For harder materials or larger end mills it is
a good idea to use a finer precision. I decided to use a feed rate of 20
inches per minute. Use a 0.1 inch pass depth (layer height).
5. Make the Finishing pass: To create our finishing pass we will

select our tool, I used the same 1/8th inch roughing end mill. Then we
will set our precision to D/5 and feed rate to 20 inches per minute.
Again, you will have to set your feed rate depending on your
confidence with your own machine and the material you are using.
Normally you set your finishing precision finer than your roughing pass
precision. As a general rule of thumb finer precision on a finishing
pass gives a better finish. However, because I know my machine quite
well I was confident a D/5 precision would work quite nicely for this
project on my machine.
6. Adjust The Finishing Pass (optional): Because I have decided to

use the same flat tip end mill for finishing this project I have to adjust
my finishing operations to ensure a good surface. Flat tip end mills will
leave a stepped finish on curves if they do not run parallel to the
surface's curvature. To avoid this i’ve manually adjusted the finishing
tool path to run across the wing rather than down its length. this will
produce the best possible surface finish with as little post milling work
as possible.
7. Adjust The Free Movement Height: To prevent the stock from
hitting the cutter during the rotation moves it's important we specify a
safe position that allows the cutter to avoid the rotating stock. After
finishing the wizard you can specify this safe position for the cutter
during rotations. To do this right click on each operation and navigate
through the context menu to Operation
Parameters>Advanced>Start/End Settings. Here you can specify
additional movements to move the cutter out of the way of your stock
material. Be careful not to crash the mill into the part or the fourth axis
with these commands. It's always a good idea to check the limits of
your G-code inside your machine software prior to running the project.
8. Calculate the toolpaths and Export the NC file: The hard part is
over! We’ve created the tool path and all that's left to do is to export
everything. Click “calculate” and then “Write NC-program file” Once
you’ve done that, you’ll have to transport the file from your CAM
computer to your machine controller. If you finished the wizard to
adjust you tool paths manually you will have to use the Create menu
to generate your files. In the Create menu you can also simulate what
your part will look like after it has been machined!
Step 5: Adjusting 4th Axis Feed Rates for Your Mill
This step is not always needed, However if you use mach3 or
LinuxCNC you will need to do this step. Because mach3 and
LinuxCNC are based on NIST standards and DeskProto is not, this
means there is a miss match between the A axis feed rate units.
LinuxCNC and Mach3 expect a degree per minute feed rate on
rotational axes, however DeskProto produces a Gcode file that uses a
linear inch per minute feed rate on rotational axes. To make the
Gcode file DeskProto produces compatible with mach3 and
LinuxCNC we will have to manually replace the A axis feed rates.
Because we are using an automatic rotation milling strategy this
manual replacement works just fine. Simply change the F value after
the A axis command to something that makes sense for a degree per
minute feed rate.
Example:
G01 A180.000 F7.5
G00 X0.000 Y-11.430
Will become:
G01 A180.000 F2000
G00 X0.000 Y-11.430 F7.5
Notice that we’ve had to add a second feed rate (F7.5) to the edited
G-code after the A axis command. This is key or we could damage the
machine by throwing one of the linear axes at some crazy feed rate.
This is where a G Code validator tool would come in handy.
Additionally in some machine software solutions you can set the
maximum linear feed rate which is a good safeguard against any
accidents.
Step 6: Set Up Your Mill
Setting up your mill for Automatic Rotation Milling is not hard, however
because the part will rotate during the milling process it must run true
otherwise there will be a noticeable error in the finished model.
Running true implies that, relative to the X (or Y) axis of your machine,
the part does not wobble. This can be caused by two things. First you
must make sure your 4th axis is mounted exactly parallel to the axis it
runs along. Even a degree out along a long workpiece can result in a
full millimeter or more of wobble at the end of the workpiece. Secondly
if the part is not aligned in the chuck properly the part will wobble as
well. This second scenario is less likely to cause errors in the part,
however the stock must have enough space to accommodate the part
once wobble is factored in.
To minimise the wobble of a round part use a dial test indicator
mounted to the spindle of your machine. Zero the dial test indicator on
the part and slowly rotate the part to find the side that has the greatest
offset from zero. Then gently tap the part to remove as close to half
the offset as possible. continue this until your part runs with a wobble
inside your acceptable tolerances.
To minimise the wobble of a square part is a little more complicated.

The best way i've found is to ensure all four sides are equidistant from
a fixed point relative to the center of your 4th axis
Additionally, For machines like mine where the 4th axis runs along the
Y axis of the machine rather than the X axis you will have to modify
the post processor inside DeskProto to accommodate this. You can
find instructions to do that
here: http://www.deskproto.com/forum/forum.php?forumsubject=1&top
ic=176
Step 7: Touch Off and Mill
Touching off: This step is often one of the most confusing aspects of
CNC machines for newcomers. CNC machines have two sets of
internal coordinate systems: the machine coordinates and the
workpiece coordinates. This is important because before we start our
mill we will have to aline the workpiece coordinates with our real world
workpiece. To do this we use a process called Touching off. To touch
off in linuxCNC simply position the tip of the tool at the XYZ
coordinates we want to align the workpiece origin with and touch off
each axis with the onscreen button. This will align the tool paths we
created in DeskProto with our work piece. Use the origin created in
DeskProto as your touch off reference.
Indexed milling is especially sensitive to errors during the touching off

process. If the touch off point is not EXACTLY at the (0,0,0) point of
your 4th axis the part will have a noticeable error. This does tend to
happen a few times when first getting started with 4th axis indexed
milling. To touch off at (0,0,0) point of your 4th axis it is easiest to
remove the stock and touch off all 3 axises at once, However if you're
comfortable with your machine and your control software allows you
can touch off each axis separately around the stock. Both strategies
work.
Additionally it is a good idea to set your feed rate limits in your

machine control software. This is useful to prevent any accidents from
damaging your mill
Step 8: The Finished Part!
The wing turned out great!

Getting Started With Indexed 4TH Axis Milling

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GETTING STARTED WITH INDEXED 4TH

Introduction: Getting Started With Indexed 4th Axis

In the world of machining two things are

Automatic Rotation CNC Milling With DeskProto

Of course to perform Automatic Rotation milling (also called Indexed

 A 4th axis either integral or as a detachable unit

I will be using a 1.5 inch diameter piece of wood doweling to create

In this part we will cover the first 3 Sections:

1.Choose your machine and type of milling: First you want to

5. Make the Finishing pass: To create our finishing pass we will

6. Adjust The Finishing Pass (optional): Because I have decided to

G01 A180.000 F7.5

G00 X0.000 Y-11.430

G01 A180.000 F2000

G00 X0.000 Y-11.430 F7.5

To minimise the wobble of a square part is a little more complicated.

Indexed milling is especially sensitive to errors during the touching off

Additionally it is a good idea to set your feed rate limits in your

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