By contrast, “continuous” means that machining happens as the part is being rotated. In fact, there are some types which are called “indexers” that can only be used to index in fixed degree increments rather than continuously rotating to any desired position.

When indexing, no cutting happens until the 4th axis is stopped (and often locked with a brake of some kind). A 4th axis is typically either used in an “indexing” mode or a “continuous” mode. But there are also many other applications.įirst thing to talk about is this term “indexing”. There are cases where we do continuous machining with a 4th axis–in other words, we want the cutter to be machining as the 4th axis turns. With CNC, cutting along an arc is easy–that’s what the G02 and G03 g-codes are for. Most manual machining 4th axis work is about cutting features along an arc, something that’s hard to do with a manual machine. While there is a grain of truth to this idea, largely it’s incorrect. Indeed, there are many projects out there where someone converted a manual rotab to become a 4th axis. If you’re new to CNC, your first impression may be that the 4th axis is used in the same way a rotary table is used for manual machining. In the second, we’ll look at how they work. In the first installment, we’ll look at what a 4th axis is used for. This is an article series to help beginners understand how and why a 4th Axis is used on CNC Mills. Haas actually got it’s start building a 4th axisbefore it ever built entire CNC machines (pictured on the right). 4th Axis machining is an interesting and important sub-part of the CNC milling world.

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