Indexer Wizards version 2.1 and DEMOs Now Available for WinCNC
 

A website has since been created: http://wizardsbyrich.yolasite.com/

For those running an indexer here is a email of Rich, rgoldner@iname.com, who has written 2 wizards so far for the indexer. I have been working with both and they are great. Rich is a retired programer who has been building CNC machine running Mach since Mach's early years. He also helped a friend upgrade his Legacy Ornimental mill to CNC. The perfect background for doing indexer wizards.

One wizard is to do spiral cuts. Designed mainly to do rope/barley twists. It allows to use A, B or C as rotational axis, do CW or CCW twists, select depth of cut, etc. Here is a 14" piece I did.

The other wizard will wrap a file around a cylinder using A, B or C as the rotational wizard. Both work great and he is going to write more.

The other option is http://legacywoodworking.com. They have released the beta version of a spread sheet that will do rounding, fluting and rope/barley twists. Price is $100. Right now it's only advantage over Rich's wizards is that it will do fluting. Hopefull Rich will fix that shortly.

Fluting wizard added
 

Rich has done a fluting wizard. It will allow you to ramp into the flute here is a pic of piece with 3/4" flutes 4" long with 1" ramp in.

New Indexer Wizards Available
 

I now have three indexer wizards available, spiral, wrap on a cylinder and my latest, flutes. The price is $75 for all three. If I make other indexer wizards available in this package in the future, all previous customers will get the new wizards as well. I can be contacted at rgoldner AT iname DOT com.

All of these wizards use a rotary axis and are aimed at woodworkers. The spiral wizard will cut rope, barley twists, hollow spirals, etc. The flute wizard will cut any number of flutes on a cylinder with or without ramping. The wrap on a cylinder wizard will allow any gcode to be wrapped around a cylinder without any changes.

What is a "wizard"? What is the input? What is the output? Screenshots?

"Wizards" are like plugins for Mach that make setting up so called canned cycles easier, rather than writing a new G-code file, you enter info into a page that works like parametric programming and the wizard does all the hard work in the background to produce the .tap file for you to run in Mach - look at the "Wizards" button on the top row in Mach.

In response to all the requests I have received for more information on my indexer wizards I have created a quick and dirty web page. Please check it out:

http://www.wizardsbyrich.embarqspace.com/

yes
 

I have turned many different things.

Art, can you put in pictures of some of your works,

btw, nice work rich!

show us more, especially something similar like getting a grape vine around a pillar!

Rich strikes again
 

Rich strikes again! He has written a rounding wizard. It will also do tapering. This a piece of 4x4 that has been in the wood pile for a few years so finish of cut is terible. Now the spiral and fluting wizards will have to be changed so they can be used on tapered work. I do a lot of spiral and fluting work on columns up to 18" by 10'. The rounding, fluting and spiral wizards are goining to save me a LOT lot of work! Profit just went up at least 15%. Talked with Rich about more enhancements and hopefully he will do more. Three weeks ago I bought the Legacy spreadsheet for $90 and was happy to get it. Now it is obsolete as the 286 computers.
If you want a grape vine wrapped around a column send me the 2.5D file. My site should be up next week. switiching ISP's.

Art

For a guy that cut columns, you must be in column heaven. Once I get my MM built, one of the areas that I want to work on next is my indexer. So I am watching this thread with interest.

I don't have a ready file , I just saw someone machining it on youtube, i was just wanting to know if that was possible and if any one has tried it using these mach wizards.

New Wizard
 

A fourth wizard has been added to the collection. This one will create any diameter cylinder out of rough stock or larger diameter cylinders. It will also create tapered cylinders.

In addition, the fluting wizard will now create flutes on tapered cylinders. Even with the added wizard the price stays at $75. Please see

http://www.wizardsbyrich.embarqspace.com/

for additional information or to purchase.

What additional wizards would you like me to write?

Here's a couple of pictures of work done with my new wave wizard. The wizard will be released in a few days.

Hi Rich,

on the wrap wizard can you write a wizard where the g code gets wrapped like a spiral, or is it already there in the wizard?

rgds
IRfan

The current wrap wizard just takes whatever is in the gcode and wraps it around the wizard. It does this by making Mach3 think that the rotary axis is acutally the Y axis. The wizard will not let you wrap more then 360 degrees around the cylinder. This limitation could be removed. Then, if you had gcode that, for example, was a line of text that ran diagonally, then when it was wrapped on the cylinder it would spiral around the cylinder.

I really screwed up the above. It should say:

The current wrap wizard just takes whatever is in the gcode and wraps it around the cylinder. It does this by making Mach3 think that the rotary axis is actually the Y axis. The wizard will not let you wrap more then 360 degrees around the cylinder. This limitation could be removed. Then, if you had gcode that, for example, was a line of text that ran diagonally, then when it was wrapped on the cylinder it would spiral around the cylinder.

Would the wrapping also work if, on the wrapping lettering, you just used used a circumference 3 (if you wanted to make 3 wraps) times the actual circumference of the column? wouldn't that alleviate any gcode change?

New Wave Wizard
 

I am pleased to announce that a new wizard has been added to my Indexer Wizards package. The Wave Wizard is used to cut sine waves onto a straight or tapered cylinder. Depending on the bit used and the pitch and amplitude selected this can create some very interesting patterns.

The price of the Indexer Wizards stays the same at $75.

For more information:

http://wizardsbyrich.yolasite.com/

Bill, The problem is not in the gcode. It's in the wizard. The wizard won't allow a wrap of more then 360 degrees. This is easy for me to change if people want it.

Indexer Wizards version 2.0 Now Available
 

I am pleased to announce that version 2.0 of the Indexer Wizards are now available. The Indexer Wizards are designed to allow you to cut cylindrical objects on your rotary axis. These objects range from simple cylinders to complex newel posts with tapers, flutes, spirals and carvings. The wizards consist of a few basic operations (called work operations) that can be combined in unlimited ways without having to write any gcode. Work operations include rounding, spirals, flutes, waves, polygons, tool change, wrap gcode on a cylinder and custom. The custom work operation allows you to include custom gcode.

The Indexer Wizards create one gcode output file that can be directly used by Mach3 to cut the object you have designed. The object is designed by entering the parameters required for each work operation that you want to add to your object. The Indexer Wizards convert these parameters to gcode. At any time you can save your work to a gcode file. You do not have to finish your design in one session. You can save your file and exit the wizards and then, at a later time, reopen the file and finish your design.

The wizards are designed to allow bi-directional operation. This means that at any time you can open a file created by the Indexer Wizards and modify your design in any way that you wish. You can change the order of work operations, add and delete work operations or change the parameters of one or more work operations. This makes it very easy to correct mistakes or change a design into something brand new.

A free operation manual may be downloaded from my website.

http://wizardsbyrich.yolasite.com/

BTW, the Indexer Wizards cost $100 and come with free upgrades and support.

Here is a picture of a carving wrapped around a cylinder. The decorative beading was done with the help of Vectric's Aspire.

Impressive Rich! Wait till Art gets a hold of these! :)

Art was actually one of the beta testers.

Rich these are really nice one's

looking forward to purchase these - btw do you have any updates planned,

RGDS
Irfan

The current version is the update. It's far superior then the original one. As for the future, who knows. ;)

I am thinking of supporting WinCNC in addition to Mach3.

A friend of mine has a DSP based system (Chinese) and was interested -but!

i vote for wincnc!!

jim

wow super expensive (the win cnc)

Indexer Wizards version 2.1 Now Available for WinCNC
 

I am happy to announce that the Indexer Wizards version 2.1 is now available. This version will support WinCNC as well as Mach3. To use the Indexer Wizards with WinCNC you will need version 2.4.09. This is a new version that Kelly Davis has created to support the Indexer Wizards. It is available at http://www.wincnc.net. Please see my website for more information.

http://wizardsbyrich.yolasite.com/

i got to see rich's program first hand this weekend and it is truly a capable piece of software!!!

jim mcgrew