Rotary Setup for PVC pipe Lithophanes.

Topics related to wrapped rotary machining in Aspire or VCarve Pro
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MikeUSNRet
Vectric Craftsman
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Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:51 pm

Rotary Setup for PVC pipe Lithophanes.

Post by MikeUSNRet »

I have finished building my rotary for my homebuilt machine and wanted to start doing some lithophanes in pvc pipe as I have seen, but have some ? before I start.

After reading through numerous posts, and watching countless videos, none have seemed to address basics.

First, I read in one thread that the person flipped the photo horizontally before rotating. the rotation part I understand depending on the orientation of the indexer, but is flipping the photo necessary?

2nd, I would then just import photo into PhotoVCarve and setup normally as if I were doing a flat litho correct?

3rd, decision here would be to convert files using CNCWrapper or importing into Aspire. Since I already have Aspire I would then run go into Gadgets and create a "Wrapped Job Setup" before importing the .pvc file?

Now a question on diameter settings.

I have some 4.00" ID sched 40 pipe that has a .25 wall thickness. I would set the diameter to the inside diameter of 4 or slightly larger?


and I think lastly, I would ask what kind of feed speeds should I plan on cutting at? since dealing with degrees of rotation vice inches, I think 100IPM would be rather slow.

Mike
STGC(SW/AW) M. Wenman USN Ret.
1982 - 2005

Greolt
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Re: Rotary Setup for PVC pipe Lithophanes.

Post by Greolt »

MikeUSNRet wrote: I read in one thread that the person flipped the photo horizontally before rotating..... but is flipping the photo necessary?
It may be necessary if you have the rotation direction of the rotary axis opposite to convention. (Right hand rule)

I can see no reason not to go with convention but some people like to have it rotate the other way.

If you want it to turn the wrong way, then post processors can be edited to invert the output.
3rd, decision here would be to convert files using CNCWrapper or importing into Aspire. Since I already have Aspire I would then run go into Gadgets and create a "Wrapped Job Setup" before importing the .pvc file?
Aspire will do lithophanes. That is what I use.

But if you want to use PhotoVcarve and also have CNCwrapper, this is a good combination.
I would ask what kind of feed speeds should I plan on cutting at? since dealing with degrees of rotation vice inches, I think 100IPM would be rather slow.
Here it gets complicated. :)

If you are using Mach3, there is a rotary axis feedrate compensation feature that comes into play.

Other controllers may have similar features but I have no experience other than Mach3.

Greg

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