Hi all,
I just wanted to share results of my simultaneous 4th axis project for my Nomad 883, catering for maximum stock dimensions of 70mm diameter, and length 150mm, see video below.
The project involved:
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Adding a custom designed 4th axis mounting plate onto the Nomad baseplate. The unit shown is plastic, but I’ll explore upgrading this to aluminium.
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Adding a 4th axis stepper motor, headstock/tailstock combination (purchased from eBay). The stepper gearing, along with the controller’s microsteps provides high precision – theoretically 0.03 degrees per microstep. I haven’t measured the actual backlash yet, but no indication it’s problematic.
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Replacing Nomad’s main controller with an alternative, the Super Gerbil CNC controller. It uses extended grbl that supports simultaneous 4th/5th axis. I’ve retained the existing Nomad spindle controller for now, and drive it from the Super Gerbil’s PWM output. Controller-wise, it’s easy to upgrade the spindle, but first I need to work out a really solid mounting to the Nomad’s Z axis.
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Replace Carbide Motion with an enhanced version of UGS (Universal Gcode Sender) that includes support Super Gerbil related features like mist, 5 axis etc.
The Super Gerbil kickstarter addresses points 3 and 4 above, and is now live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2118335444/1112157454?ref=592500&token=88705198
Looking forward to your feedback on this 4th axis project… if people are keen I’d consider running an additional kickstarter to provide the 4th axis hardware for Nomad (ie. points 1 and 2 on above list)… please click the heart symbol for this post below ( <3 ) if you’d support this.
Assuming you have all the above components, the installation skill level is low to medium.
Cheers
Dan