Ignoramus8473 wrote:

On 2010-07-24, Bob La Londe wrote:
"Ignoramus8473" wrote in message
...
I have a swivel milling vise. Do I understand it right, as it seems,
that CNC does not care for swiveling and I would be best served taking
the swivel base off?

Usually people go for a rotary table. Then you can "swivel" your work piece
in a controlled repeatable manner. Put a motor on your rotary table and,
"BAM!" 4 axis machining. I can usually clamp most work pieces without one
to get what I want, but it would be nice for a little more consistent tooth
position for cutting some types of gears. If I had a bigger working
envelope I would be really tempted to go 5 axis and put a trunnion table or
a chuck and spindle on top of a rotary table. There are some pockets that
are just a pain to program using just 3 axis.

Bob, I have a Troyke CNC rotary table (no control, just a servo driven
table). It does not seem to work. I have not even started looking it
it, as I want to work on one project at a time. But I want to fix it
soon, if it is really broken, and use as a 4th axis.

I presume you'll use the RT in a vertical orientation? A horizontal RT
is real handy on a manual mill, but not particularly useful on a CNC
where circular interpolation will do the job.

As for a swivel base on the vise, take it off, it is of no benefit on a
CNC mill and only serves to waste an inch of Z height.