Using T2Laser to engrave on Cylindrical Objects

[Agastar]

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a small engraver using the 3 axis Eleks Maker board to engrave pen blanks that I have turned out of wood or other cylindrical objects. The laser will move left and right but the forward and back will be used to rotate the object.

My question is would T2laser work for this. I'm assuming I would need to adjust some settings for different diameters.

Thanks
John

[Zax]

Correct. You would set the steps/mm for the rotary axis and then "un-wrap" the pens surface as a flat design in T2Laser.

[Agastar]

Thanks!

[laser_cutter]

Correct. You would set the steps/mm for the rotary axis and then "un-wrap" the pens surface as a flat design in T2Laser.

Would you please elaborate on this?
As in baby step me through the process?

How am I determining the steps/mm? Is it based on the circumference of the object?

[Zax]

It's calculated for you in T2Laser, just enable rotary mode and enter the diameter of the item. It stores your current Grbl settings, updates them for rotary and when you are finished allows you to disable rotary mode and return to normal.

[2combs]

I've got some specific things I would like to do with my eleksmaker laser and T2 using a rotary device. Let's see if I have this right in my head. I'm thinking I would adapt a small 3 jaw chuck to a stepper motor and have that mounted on a fixture. To use this I would just unplug the two side stepper motors and plug one of those leads into the rotary motor? Simple as that hardware wise? The rest would be setup in the T2 software as described above? Thanks in advance. I thought about starting a new thread but there is already good info here. 

[Zax]

Yes, that would do it.

[nottingham82]

yup.  this is the rotary device I use.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2561227

[ThothLoki]

T2 works well for rotary
I use this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2565273

Make sure you have rotary selected on the control screen in T2

[2combs]

Thanks to all of you! I thought about doing this a while back but I didn't realize that T2 supported this until I stumbled across this thread last night. I just ordered an extra stepper motor. In the meantime, I'll use my mill and lathe to make the rest of the stuff I need to get it setup for my needs. Those 3D printed parts are so neat. Makes me want to buy a 3D printer.

T2 works well for rotary
I use this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2565273

Make sure you have rotary selected on the control screen in T2

Next question. In your videos I noticed you have your x/y configured opposite of how I envisioned it. I figured I would disconnect the two stepper motors on the gantry and it would be stationary, the laser would still move left to right, and the rotary device would only move to advance the part for each line just like the gantry motors do now?. Am i thinking about it all wrong? i guess it depends on how T2 is setup. Thanks

[nottingham82]

It can do either.  I disconnect my y axis.  Loki disconnects his x.  T2 doesnt care which you do.  It has a check box to you need to select which axis to disconnect.

[2combs]

It can do either.  I disconnect my y axis.  Loki disconnects his x.  T2 doesnt care which you do.  It has a check box to you need to select which axis to disconnect.

Oh ok, makes sense. I haven't looked at it in T2 yet. I'll post back with my progress, or more questions, whichever come first. Thanks

[Zax]

I use the Y axis as there's less mass to scan the head (X) rather than the gantry (Y).

[ThothLoki]

Yeah yeah yeah. I am the only one who uses x.

Honestly I chose the x axis initially because the the stepper driver current was set for one motor instead of Y’s driver which is set up for two motors. I was worried that it would start to overheat my motor. Obviously it must be ok if everyone else is using it that way. The videos I had posted were my initial tests so x was used.

[nottingham82]

if it works it works