I have a Lathe machine. Have one dedicated axis that is rotating.
I know that I only need the 2D shape which is easy to draw. I just don't know how to wrap the 2D shape along the X axis and generate the G-code for the machine from Vcarve. Actually Aspire can do a two-rail sweep but the problem is that I have a licence only for Vcarve.
Vcarve Pro has the "Wrapping" gadget, easy to use, just need to use the appropriate post processor for indexing on X or Y axis. The post processor will do the translation of the x movement to b movement, I am wrapping the x axis with my lathe parallel to the y axis. I have a completely converted Rikon lathe (setup by Brady Watson) and it works great for 2d and 3d.
Please can you give a short tutorial about your workflow. I just don't understand how you are achieving your result.
Vcarve Pro also have the Wrapping gadgets, just seems that they are built with other purposes in mind, I mean for indexer machines.
I have a lot of experience using routers but this is the first lathe machine I'm working with and I need to understand very precise everything to get good results.
I guess my first question would be if you are using yours as a true lathe? or do you have a stepper motor attached to it? Mine can be used either way but so far I have only used it with the stepper motor being run by my cnc controller. As was previously mentioned, if you are using the lathe under it's own power, turned on a spinning, then you would only need the Y and Z moves, no X moves since you are not using X. You would also need it to run up and down the Y axis several times to be sure you don't leave any wood uncut. You also have to be very careful how fast you are spinning and the depth of the cut with each pass of the Y axis. Like I said I have not used mine running under it's own power but can imagine the issues that can come up. You would have to modify a post processor to leave out the X axis movements, translating only the Y and Z axis. Hope this helps.
You will not need to "wrap" the job to be able to cut the profile in your first post. Nor is a 3D model required. The profile can be cut on that machine with XY vectors.
Gary Campbell
GCnC Control
ATC & Servo Controller Controller Upgrades
GCnC411 (at) gmail.com
IslaWW wrote:You will not need to "wrap" the job to be able to cut the profile in your first post. Nor is a 3D model required. The profile can be cut on that machine with XY vectors.
Ok. Understand this, but how I need to proceed to generate the gcode for lathe from a 2D shape? All the information I can find in this forum is about wrapped setups for doing this things.
Here is a screenshot of the simple 2d vector (quick trace from your 1st picture) a profile toolpath "on vector" will yield the proper XY code. Z may have to be eliminated from the gcode file, or you may have to make a special postP that swaps the axes and removes code for the unneeded axes.
Gary Campbell
GCnC Control
ATC & Servo Controller Controller Upgrades
GCnC411 (at) gmail.com