Hello all, I have received valuable info from this board in the past and a few questions have come up while planning a rotary axis for my machine. I was hoping you could help me out with some info. I have the 1515 Lead machine bundle with High Z, Blackbox, Touch Interface, and Dewalt 611. I'm using Vectric V-Carve Pro. I would like to add the K12 4 jaw chuck and tail stock that has been linked on Amazon in other threads here. It would be mounted parallel to my X axis, so the Y on my machine would be locked out. I'm aware that the Blackbox will not control the 4th axis without unplugging the Y steppers and then plugging in the A stepper for the rotary setup. I'm also aware to never unplug steppers without first powering down the Blackbox. I was advised in another one of my troubleshooting threads to always "Home XYZ" every time I power up the controller. This leads me to my first question, How does one "Home XYZ" when there is no limit switch on the A axis to home to? I've seen methods on zeroing for tool changes and I think I have a handle on that, but I'm very unclear on homing the machine after powering up the machine. I'd like to add the rotary setup to my existing machine to save space and a little money rather than build a dedicated lathe. Thanks kindly for any info you may be able to provide to help get this started.
As the Vectric post doesn't use Machine Coordinates, you can forgo homing unless you need it for some other macros or other use case
oh ok, thanks for the clarification Peter. My parts list is almost finalized and I'll order the parts. I'm stuck on a good method to mount the entire unit to my existing table with repeatable results. I had considered milling a shallow pocket in the spoilboard for ease of placement. I have yet to use the entire area of my machine bed, but don't want to permanently mount the rotary unit since I am planning some larger projects for the future.
A pocket milled in the spoilboard should work. Or you could mount the whole thing on something like 1/8 aluminum plate. Then, mount an angled corner connector (or any thing else that is durable) on your Y axis Cbeams where you want the rotary to be to act as a stop. Then align the rotary and fasten it down. Once it is secure, use another angled corner connector as a stop along the opposite Y cbeam and secure it tightly against that side. Then whenever you need to use it, slide the whole rotary fixture tight against these small stops and all your mounting holes in the spoilboard should be lined up again. But, since this is a 1515, that is a long plate.
Thanks Giarc! Your build is what has motivated me to do this. I am thinking a long piece of C beam, with the 40x40 sitting in the C channel. It looks like the jaws of the chuck would touch when they are extended out for larger stock though, so I may mill out a slot in the 40x40 just where the jaws are.
