I'd like to be able to use Gearotic horizontally instead of as a 4th axis. I'm trying to find out if anyone has done the cnc for a rotary table horizontally on the mill.

The reason I'm interested is that I'm trying to cut a gear (almost 7" in diameter) that's over the limit for the x/y travel on the mill, even with extensions to the y-axis. Its for a clock project I'm working on. I was thinking if the rotary table was able to rotate, and then let the x and y cut the part, the rotate and repeat, it would be a nice way to cut a gear.

What I'm doing now is designing in Gearotic, CAD/CAM with BobCAD, then milling with Mach 3. To cut the gear within the limits, I can only cut 1/2 of the gear at a time, and then use the rotary table to move 180 degrees and repeat the milling. The same with cutting out the spokes. I have the blank mounted with a center bolt through a spoilboard and then into the threads of the rotary table. It worked, but its not "elegant".

I'm going to try surfacing using the rotary table by incrementally moving in y and then starting the cutter and MDI a-axis to +360 and then moving the y and doing -360. That, I imaging, will give a pattern of circles over stock.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially from someone who uses the rotary table horizontally.

Steve