Lathe and Chip former

[samsongli (Song Li)]

Bought a small lathe and hoping to make it work with my shapeoko 4. Plan to have the shapeoko control the chip former move along Z and Y axis. Any recommendation on chip former and how to fasten it on the shapeoko? Thanks.

[Julien]

Here’s how I did it:

Mini-lathe + shapeoko?

I’ve been daydreaming about getting a mini lathe to complement my shapeoko, and wondering if I could envision using the shapeoko to hold/move the cutter, while the mini-lathe would just spin the piece (i.e. , NOT managing a 4th axis, just leveraging the Y axis of the shapeoko to move the cutter along a given profile) I have been re-reading various threads on this forum but found only this very short one that corresponds exactly to that scenario. I have my eyes on this Proxxon mini-lathe: [i…

(machined a piece of aluminium that attaches to the body of the spindle)

[AndyC (Andy Corteen)]

I explored this, but decided to head down a different rabbit hole: I added a stepper-controlled rotary axis to my SO3XL (bed along the X axis) and use Vectric VCarve to generate native rotary gcode using Neil Ferri’s post processor. When in ‘rotary mode’ VCarve doesn’t output Y coordinates, but instead outputs A (rotary) steps and I changed the controller PCB and grbl for a 5-axis capable setup (keyeStudio PCB and gerbl-MEGA-5X) so I didn’t have to keep swapping stepper cables etc.
Somewhere on here is a post showing what I did. It’s more involved than introducing a lathe, but I was concerned at synchronising lathe to CNC, permanent rotation to stepper controlled movements, and rigidity of the cutter… So I have a 4-axis machine, rather than a CNC bed-fed lathe - different outcomes for different reasons/choices.

Rotary Axis CNC in action

[samsongli (Song Li)]

Thanks Andy. I found your reply If you had to replace the C3D control board anyway, would you switch to something else? - #14 by AndyC this seems really fun, with upgrade to 4 axis and potentially silent the motors with better driver.

[samsongli (Song Li)]

Two questions for you Andy:

1. You mentioned in your 4 axis solution you’re using 2209 driver for ShapeOKO 3 XL, does that mean you’re using 2209 driver on nema 23? I have a ShapeOKO 4 standard and want to confirm the driver can cover the motor’s current draw.
2. Does your PCB have adjacency sensor capabilities? If not how would you handle the cases when to stop the motors when they move to the end of the axis?
   Thanks.
   btw I am still doing my research, so far it seems a Makerbase Robin nano V3 + 2209 + Marlin CNC fork is the best fit. My rotary is using nema 17.

[AndyC (Andy Corteen)]

@samsongli Yes, I am using the TMC2209 drivers with the NEMA-23 motors standard on the SO3, and spent some time adjusting the peak current to cope with acceleration/stress maxima along with trying to keep current (mostly heat) down. I am not at the max current setting available, although I will admit that this is from observational experiments rather than science fact.
I have the proximity sensor upgrade on my SO3XL (on X, Y and Z) and these are connected to the controller PCB and enabled. I also run ‘soft limits’ too, not a standard Carbide setting, as I prefer to hit a soft limit rather than find I have hit the end-stops and the motors are ‘rumbling’.
Were I starting over, I would be taking a very close look at the new GRBL HAL software and the processor/carrier platforms it can run on - in fact I have just bought a processor/carrier (Teensy 4.1 processor, Phil Barrett Carrier/Break-out Board), and some Digital Drivers Modules (DM3230) to experiment a possible re-update of my controller. Undecided as yet - some of the fun is in the ‘chase’…
This processor/carrier/driver setup will be better for 4-axis control, but the missing link remains solid support for 4-axis control (jogging, zeroing and visualisation) in the sender applications. The best options to date are UGS (with some custom code I wrote to help) and gSender which can pass through 4-axis GRBL but cannot (yet) control the rotary axis jogging etc.
I can’t comment on Marlin as the operating/command language, and am sure others will be able to comment from a position of knowledge on this - I am averse to adopting it purely because I know GRBL and that it is widely supported.
Hope this helps.

[samsongli (Song Li)]

I bought a MKS monster 8 board for this project, along with 8 tmc2226 drivers, while waiting for the package to arrive, I modified marlin 2.1 to add A axis that rotates, and Y2 that works with Y, project builds. Need to figure out the actual mm/step for XYZ on ShapeOKO4 so that I can put in the right values.

The board supports limit sensors so I guess I can either use those on the cnc, or see if 2226’s sensor works.

I need to figure out the right adapter convertors, I think ShapeOKO4 uses microfit for stepper motor connection but MKS uses KK. Another component is the power adapter - need to calculate if the ShapeOKO’s adapter has enough amp for 5 motors.

Monster 8 board is slightly bigger than the ShapeOKO PCB housing - I need to carve out aluminum sheets for a new housing, fun!