Hello all, I currently have a Shapeoko xl and I want to add a 4th Axis one way or another even if that means using what I currently have and adding parts to achieve this. My current control board only has 3 axis output so I think its safe to assume I will need to upgrade that board but what else am I going to need other then that could someone please provide a list of everything I will be needing to be able to make this happen?any and all help will be greatly appreciated Thank You!
Not quite, you can do rotary work with just 3 axes. Disconnect the X or Y (whichever direction you mounted your rotary) - connect the rotary to that driver, and then use Vectric's Wrapping feature to translate rotary to X or Y driver: Rotary Machining and Wrapping - VCarve Pro V9.0 User Manual (V10x guides are video only, excuse me linking an older version but it discusses it better) Practical example is Giarc's Lead Lathe running a BlackBox (Grbl = 3 axes) using Wrapping in Vectric: LEAD Lathe - se the discussions tab for example workpieces and setup details
Technically, I use a post processor someone wrote for a grbl based rotary which translates mm to degrees. I further modified it so it outputs the file format I like. I can track that post processor down if you want. Although everything is designed as a rotary project so maybe the post processor does nothing but make it grbl friendly. All I do know for sure is it it works and that is all I care about. It was posted on here by someone that built a rotary CNC a few years ago, and then removed the build for some reason. So, workflow: 1 Design in VCarve 2 postprocess as grbl rotary 3 run with whatever grbl based controller you have (after calibrating the steps per degree - 1 minute video on how below).
