New to Rotary

[Tanksjj]

I just added the rotary to my Stinger II SR-44. My first project after getting it set up with Camaster tech support was to turn a cylinder. I used Aspire 10.5 gadget rounding tool path. 1/4" endmill 2 flute, .125 pass depth, .125 stepover, spindle speed 18000, feed 75ipm, plunge 40 ipm . The end result left marks (lines) on the wood. I made sure the X was centered to the center of the headstock spindle before starting. I would appreciate any recommendations to get the piece closed to a finished product.

Thanks
Jim

[keithrhyde]

Jim, I haven't used my rotary for awhile but I used a ball nose for rounding. I have a number a bits for rotary from Magnate such as barley twist and they all are rounded. Those marks are left from the end mill's straight edge IMHO.

After I used my rotary I use my regular lathe to sand. You may lose an .125 inch sanding but I believe that would remove those marks.

[SteveNelson46]

It's a common problem. The ridges really won't matter if you lower the final surface on your project by .001 or so in Aspire. Some choose write their own gcode to spirial from end to end but that's kind of heroic. It's been talked about here on the forum and a search might turn up something useful. I think it would be nice if the Vectric folks would refine their rounding toolpaths but its a lot of work and it would depend on how many users would really benefit.

[DVE2000]

I use a Python script to rough round a spindle. Gary Campbell posted some G-Code examples in the owner's section.

For smoothing, if you're at the correct Z height, G1 Y<length> A<length * 10000>, will give you nice spiral cut on your spindle. I've always had to do a little sanding, but I've always used a flat spiral bit for this. I'll need to try a ball nose bit.

[rcnewcomb]

Rounding blanks on the recoil can be slow and unsatisfying. If you have a lathe it is faster to round your blanks there.

However, if you don't have a lathe...

For rounding I use a 1/2" end mill with at least a 1.5" cutting length for rounding a 4x4. I use a 30% or 40% stepover.

I strongly recommend trimming the corners ahead of time on table saw or band saw for anything larger than a 2x2.

Rather than using the rounding gadget I recommend optimizing for your machine. I create a rectangle and use a very shallow pocket toolpath.

Create a rectangle slightly larger than the blank.
Create a pocket toolpath @0.001" deep
Raster the long way

Often this is twice as fast as the rounding gadget. YMMV

[Tanksjj]

Thanks everyone for the the advice. I have a couple of wood turning lathes so I can rough the blanks to remove the corners. I had done that to starts with but was having terrible results from the Aspire rounding gadget. I searched the forum in the owners section and found some sample G Code from Johnny CNC. I had to tweak it 17 times but finally found a combination of 1/2 inch EM and feed rate the left a smooth surface.