Turning stair case spindles

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Paul Stewart
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Turning stair case spindles

Post by Paul Stewart »

Is there a way to use v carve pro to turn stair case spindles on a lathe mounted under the "Z" axis and have the the cnc machine profile along the "x" axis (moving from left to right) to rough out and then profile the fine details,(with maybe a bit change in between roughing and fine profiling.)and if so some hints /help on set up of v carve pro and cnc machine Thanks in advance.

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dealguy11
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Re: Turning stair case spindles

Post by dealguy11 »

Is the lathe under control of the CNC or is it spinning independently? VCarve Pro and Aspire can both do wrapped machining, where you wrap the part into a cylinder and then, in the post-processor, map one of the axes (in your case, Y) to the A axis of the machine. In V-Carve Pro, I think you would then be more or less limited to adding your coves and beads using router bit profiles. In Aspire you could cut pretty much any profile you can dream up. Neither program will cut a nice smooth path, moving the tool in a continuous path as the A-axis turns under it - instead, it rasters, just as it does when cutting flat work (either in the X direction or around the part). Certainly in Aspire I have done any number of spindles and other turnings this way.

I'm not sure how you would program it to operate if the lathe is spinning independently of the CNC. Somehow, the Y-axis moves would need to be eliminated. Perhaps this could be done by editing the post-processor. I'm sure someone with more experience with post-processors can answer that.

It is totally possible to do what you want by coding the G-code directly by hand. You would need to draw the part in a CAD program (even VCarve Pro), and then using the measurements from the drawing, create the code. This would allow you to generate a smooth path from left to right, with the tool moving up and down in the XZ plane. Although the resulting program will be very short (by comparison to anything produced by Aspire), there are some advanced G-code concepts required to do this, and you will not get a visual preview. If you have a Legacy machine, you can also use the Conversational Cam program provided by Legacy with their machines to generate the code - you would need to edit it a bit to eliminate the unnecessary A-axis moves and set the feed rates properly. On the other hand, if you had the Legacy machine you wouldn't need the lathe :-)
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TSM2018
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Re: Turning stair case spindles

Post by TSM2018 »

I realize this is a really old post (6 years) but did you turn the spindles? I can buy a 4th axis for my machine and am still contemplating as I am not fond of the results I get with a duplicator.

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IslaWW
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Re: Turning stair case spindles

Post by IslaWW »

If you have a part that COULD be cut on a traditional wood lathe, then it is most like not the best candidate for a 4th axis,

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kyeakel
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Re: Turning stair case spindles

Post by kyeakel »

I cut 16 spindles and 2 newl posts for my 1885 Victorian Home. I duplicated what was on the home and had my Camaster Stinger 1 cut them out. I did the newl posts in 2 parts, a 5" diameter ball that sits atop a 40" long turned column. All parts were made from 6x6 cedar, but I ran several trys on 6x6 pressure treated post to refine the process. The spindles were 1.5" square and 30" long.

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bbiehl
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Re: Turning stair case spindles

Post by bbiehl »

I cut these spindles from 2"x 2" maple using my 4th axis. I too did not like results I got from my duplicator on the lathe.

-brian
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stairRailing1.jpg

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