Lathe fourth axis active tooling

[kenmwallace]

My acorn lathe is working well now so I want to start planning the next layer of features I need for my woodwind instrument manufacturing.
My turret is on the front of my X axis and I want to mount a high speed spindle on the back of the X axis to make the finger holes in the barrel of the instruments.
The holes vary in size so I want to use an 1/8” cutter and do circular interpolation to define whatever diameter I want. I will hold the active tooling spindle in a vertical moving axis. That is what I’m calling axis 4. Access three would be the C axis on the spindle.
Obviously, the main spindle is not turning while I’m milling the holes in the side of the instrument.
What I’m asking for is if someone can point me to the place in the instructions where it talks about adding this kind of milling functionality to the lathe installation.
I think I will have to change the axis pairing when program gets to these instructions in order to have a coordinated move between the Z axis and axis 4.
If I want to mill a chamfer on the edge of the holes, then I need the X axis tied in as well.
Thanks for any advice! NOTE: Photo is turned 90 deg.
Ken Wallace, San Diego

[suntravel]

Not sure what you want, the machine on the pic do not have a real Y axis.

But with a C-axis you could interpolate a Y-axis.

C-Axis will be the third axis on a lathe.

I have made a PP for fusion to do this on a lathe with Centroid CNC

https://centroidcncforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=7936

Uwe

[kenmwallace]

I have collected all the parts for the Y axis. I can install it in a couple of days. It will only have an inch of travel, but that’s all I need. I need to be able to make a seat for the valves of the instrument to seat against. That seat needs a planar surface. Not sure I can get that using C axis. Also the walls of the holes would be tapered if i form them with C axis.
Before i go any further with the mechanics, it seems like a good idea to spend some time verifying that the software can support what I am doing. I don’t think I see anything about it in the CNC12 instructions.

[suntravel]

My lathe is with XZCY axis, no problem for Acorn6 Lathe ultimate version.

At the moment G2/3 is not running in XY plane, but short vector linear moves will work to mill arcs.

Intercon is only for 2 axis, you have to use CAD/CAM or handcode

Uwe

[kenmwallace]

Thanks Uwe. I have Pro, so I will upgrade to ultimate.
I have a spare Acorn, so I was thinking that if I added a small Z axis slide and a vertical slide, I could machine the features I want with a completely independent system of control running mill software. I think I could program an output from the main control program that would trigger the secondary system. It would be a kind of passing back and forth between the controls.
I brought this idea up a long time ago, and I think you or someone said that it was unnecessary, and that’s probably true, but it might have some advantages.