First really successful rotary axis job

[gordonb]

I've managed to sort out the 4th axis on my AXBB controlled rotary engraver and made a fixture to hold rings for external engraving, works very well. Photo shows the fixture and two test rings made from copper and aluminium tube (I'm not going to try any precious metals yet and copper is about the same hardness as annealed silver according to my daughter). The engraving was done using a 120 degree diamond drag point that is very well used but even so I' very pleased with the results, I'm finding UCCNC easy to work with and the AXBB is a great bit of kit, pleased I decided to build the controller around it. Got a new 90 degree diamond tool on the way, should work better that the one I used.

[gordonb]

The text on the copper ring has capitals that are just under 2mm high, which gives some idea of how fine the engraving is.

[cncdrive]

Nice.
Did you make this using the G93 inverse time feed mode?

[gordonb]

Thank you, the toolpath was originally generated using Vectric Cut2D then wrapped onto a cylinder using GCode Ripper, which doesn't seem to use G93 mode. I've shown the first part of the toolpath code below. Once I'm completely satisfied that the concept works perfectly I'm intending to upgrade from Cut2D to Vectric V-Carve, which will generate rotary axis toolpaths itself. Not sure if V-Carve uses G93 though, need to check that.

( G-Code Modified by G-Code Ripper )
( by Scorch - 2013-2020 www.scorchworks.com )
(G-Code Ripper has mapped the Y-Axis to the A-Axis )
(A nominal stock radius of 10.950000 was used. )
(Z-axis zero position is the surface of the round stock. )
(---------------------------------------------------------)
G90 (set absolute distance mode)
G90.1 (set absolute distance mode for arc centers)
G17 (set active plane to XY)
G21 (set units to mm)
(G-Code Preamble)
(---------------------------------------------------------)
( One Ring )
( File created: Tuesday August 04 2020 - 06:58 PM)
( for UCCNC from Vectric )
( Material Size)
( X= 8.000, Y= 68.800, Z= 2.000)
()
(Toolpaths used in this file:)
(Quick Engrave 3)
(Tools used in this file: )
(2 = Engraving {30.0°, Tip 0.1 - 4.6 mm})
G40 G49 G80
G71
T2 M06
(Engraving {30.0°, Tip 0.1 - 4.6 mm})
G43 Z20.000 H2
S16000 M03
(Toolpath:- Quick Engrave 3)
()
G94
G0 X 0.0000 A 0.000
G0 X 0.6360 A-55.271 Z 5.0000
G1 Z-1.8500 F 508.00
G1 X 0.8490 A-55.391 F 1262.66
G1 X 1.1390 A-55.805 F 1225.35

[ger21]

Yes, the latest versions of Vectric products support G93.

[gordonb]

Thanks for the information regarding Vectric products, however the post processor for UCCNC doesn't appear to implement it. There are other pp files that include the word "wrap" in the file name, such as Mach2_3_Wrap_Y2A_ATC_mm.pp and they do implement G93, but nothing for UCCNC. I'm joining the Vectric forum to see if they're likely to produce one, unless there's someone using this forum who has one they could share?