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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by ddmckee54 on January 18, 2026, 11:46:27 PM »
Some progress has been made on embiggening the Z axis carriage and spindle mount, this is where the design is now.

The magenta objects are the new Z carriage and the slide for the spindle mount.  The carriage length increased from 96mm to 160mm, and the slide height went from 35mm to 48mm.  The extra 64mm of carriage length gives me over 75mm of Z axis travel.  The extra 13mm of slide height allows me to install two LM8UU linear bearings on each rail, instead of the original one per rail with 11mm of hole leftover to get packed full of shmutz. 

Something's not computing in the listed specs on the anti-backlash nuts I bought.  I just don't see how you can possibly install M3 bolts in a 16mm bolt circle, when the object you're trying to insert through that circle is 14mm in diameter.  The numbers just don't add up.  I'm going to have to wait until I have the parts in hand before finalizing the design and doing any printing.
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Software Tools / Re: Experiences, thoughts and rants about using Linux as a newbie after Windows
« Last post by sorveltaja on January 18, 2026, 09:20:17 AM »
I've been experimenting with Debian server based Mate on my pc, just to find out, how it runs on hardware.

Observations so far:

Being server based, there will likely be missing, graphics-related libraries - lack of "desktop plumbing" as the saying goes.

In practice, even if one manages to install Nvidia driver, it works with apps like Blender just fine (it's quite easy to see if there's a real display acceleration, by making a scene with hundreds or thousands of objects).

As always, I insist on using benchmarking apps on a new system to see how the hardware performs. That's where the missing libraries are - well, missing.

An example: that happened with Passmark - it launched only in a text mode in terminal, instead of gui, to do some of the tests. It uses some older libraries, that aren't in Debian repository anymore. That can happen with other apps as well. Also, from what I've read, enabling and using old repositories might break the system.

One should know exactly how to handle such issues. At this point I think it's too much of a hassle. So, next one I'll be testing is a 'real' desktop' distro, Mint Mate.
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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by ddmckee54 on January 18, 2026, 12:47:53 AM »
I've been working on figuring out just exactly how I'm going to attach the new pieces to the existing hardware, so I started 3D modeling the relevant bits. The hardest part of that was determining the actual location of the leadscrew in relation to the new linear rails. I could determine the position of the existing rails in relation to the mounting locations for the existing 2020 extrusions and I'm reusing those same mounting holes for my new 2040 extrusions. So I had a fixed starting point. As near as I can tell, the center of the leadscrew is on the vertical centerline of the existing 10mm rails. However, it is not centered BETWEEN those rails. Oh no, couldn't do that, that'd be too easy. The leadscrew's centerline is 1mm BELOW that center - and I am NOT moving that leadscrew.(Yet) After a lot of head scratching, and double-checking/triple-checking/quadruple-checking of measurements, I started modeling the important bits of the Y & Z axis. This is where I'm at now:

The orange colored bit is the Y axis leadscrew, the cyan bit is the mounting plate for the bearing blocks/lead nut holder/Z axis. I ordered enough anti-backlash lead nuts to replace all of what they used as lead nuts. I don't think any of them were actually bolted to anything, so far they've just been a push fit in the moldings. Before I ordered them though I figured it just MIGHT behoove me to determine what flavor of T8 trapezoidal screw they were. It turns out they are T8 screws with a 2mm pitch, 2 starts, and a 4mm lead, so that's the flavor that I ordered. Things will be a little "tight" where the Y axis lead nut will live - there's 19mm between the bearing blocks, and the lead nut will be occupying 14.5mm of that. I'm going to 3D print the lead nut holder and there's plenty of room above and below the lead screw to put plenty of meat for the lead nut to pull/push on. The Z axis is still just a figment of my imagination, once I can get it out of my head and into the computer I'll share it. I do know that I want to shoot for 75-80mm of Z travel, that'll let me fasten a replaceable spoil board to the bed and still give me a decent work envelope.

Don
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Electronics & IC Programing / Re: Pi PICO DRO/Quill-Knee combiner
« Last post by BillTodd on January 16, 2026, 10:32:20 AM »
Thanks Steve,

looks like I'm a bit premature with the software though: there's a bug in the Z output (actually , less of a bug and more of a whoops, forgot to actually implement the function !)

I finally found it warm enough to fit the knee scale . It was a bit of a PITA because nothing is vaguely flat on the side of the column - I had to print a couple of spherical fitting to allow the scale mounting with just two screws .

Apart from the Z count direction bug , There are a few things that need improvement :

The I2C display is quite slow , compared to the SPI used in the previous dro tests, so the update feels laggy .  I'll have to see how fast I can over-=clock the I2C

The Z output really need to be handled by a PIO . ATM it is possible to move the Quill faster than the Z can output resulting in a off-putting run-on/catch-up of the Z display.

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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by ddmckee54 on January 15, 2026, 07:27:00 PM »
Ade, straight out of the box there's so many ways these things can flex and bend that it isn't even funny.  And I'm less than impressed with their "lead nuts", they WILL be replaced.  I'm not expecting to be able to hog out tool steel with this thing when I'm done, but light cuts in brass/aluminum/plastic it should be able to handle.  And if I'm really lucky, even lighter cuts in steel - Awesome CNC Freak has shown it can be done.
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Software Tools / Re: Experiences, thoughts and rants about using Linux as a newbie after Windows
« Last post by sorveltaja on January 15, 2026, 10:47:38 AM »
Quote from: sorveltaja on December 16, 2025, 06:54:48 PM
Another is that I've not been able to completely disable power management features. The screen still goes off after 10 minutes, if there's no activity.

One workaround that seems to work to disable screen blanking, is to edit xsessionrc file at /etc/X11/Xsession.d folder (in my system that file is called '40x11-common_xsessionrc').

It probably already exists, but if not, to create it or edit existing one, navigate to that folder, and right-click 'Open as Administrator'. This folder opens in a new window, and now it's possible to edit and save that file using Pluma, Gedit or other text editor.

As a default, the file looks like this:

Code: [Select]
# This file is sourced by Xsession(5), not executed.

#Source user defined xsessionrc (locales and other environment variables)
if [ -r "$USERXSESSIONRC" ]; then
  . "$USERXSESSIONRC"
fi
After editing:

Code: [Select]
# This file is sourced by Xsession(5), not executed.

#Source user defined xsessionrc (locales and other environment variables)
if [ -r "$USERXSESSIONRC" ]; then
  . "$USERXSESSIONRC"
fi

xset s off
xset s noblank
xset -dpms
Then save the file and reboot.
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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by AdeV on January 15, 2026, 04:05:30 AM »
Quote from: ddmckee54 on January 14, 2026, 10:27:44 PM
After doing a root-cause analysis of the problem, it was determined that some NUMBSKULL had forgotten to lock the fence down on the saw.

Sounds like you had the kind of day in the workshop that I always seem to experience.... Glad you saved it though!

I am watching with great interest, as I also have one of those floppy 3018 machines; I've only used it a handful of times so far, mainly because it's so loose, I thought it would make a good CNC PCB drilling machine - which it would, if only the rest of my PCB production skills were worthy of its accuracy...
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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by ddmckee54 on January 14, 2026, 10:27:44 PM »
I got a little more done today, but nothing worthy of any pictures.  I finally quit waffling about the Y axis rail length, I needed 370mm so I marked them at 370mm.  When I cut the rails, I cut on the"good" side of the line rather than the waste side.  The kerf from the spinning wheel of death, and its' clean-up, gave me about 3mm of clearance.  The 2040 rail supports I cut at 370mm on the table saw with a carbide blade,  I took it slow, wore ear protection, and it worked like a charm - or so I thought.  Except... They weren't the right length, and they weren't even the SAME length - despite the fact that the fence setting had never been changed.  After doing a root-cause analysis of the problem, it was determined that some NUMBSKULL had forgotten to lock the fence down on the saw.  Fortunately they had grown in length rather than shrinking, so they were saveable.  I set the fence back to 370mm, locked it down this time, and trimmed the pieces to length.  I tapped the ends of the extrusion M5, and replaced the existing 2020 extrusions.  I was a little off on my estimate of the gap between the new extrusions, it's actually 16.5mm.

I figured out why this particular 30mm sheet was scrapped, the rail in the foreground in the above pictures rocks back and forth.  I can hold one end down and measure about a 0.015" gap under the other end, so there's probably about a 0.008" lump in the middle.  Looks like I've got some shimming in my future.  The background rail sits flat now, but I'll probably have to shim it to level it to the front rail.
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Member Videos / Retrol EngineDIYshop SE-03 Vertical Steam Engine Plant Wood Fired!
« Last post by Jim Dobson on January 14, 2026, 09:53:38 PM »
I cut some small well seasoned Aussie eucalyptus hardwood into the correct size to get into the firebox and a small amount of spirits to get the wood alight. The smell out of the chimney was delightful.
After it all burnt down to ash, I was able to suck it out with a small car vacuum cleaner......all in all, it worked quite well!

https://youtu.be/kDhQtNsuHM0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDhQtNsuHM0
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Software Tools / Re: Experiences, thoughts and rants about using Linux as a newbie after Windows
« Last post by sorveltaja on January 14, 2026, 06:22:38 PM »
This is not about Linux per se, but odd licensing. A good (or bad) example is when Winamp released its source code some time ago. But the license only allowed it to be forked/modified for private use.

And not only that - it was said that when the source code was released on Github, it was a mess - it even included other stuff like copyrighted Shoutcast and Dolby code.   

After few weeks, they deleted whole thing from Github. From what I understand, it had hundreds of forks already in that point (obviously some, if not most just making fun of the license).

Lunduke's musings on the subject (~20min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w9Y1FOUaNI

I guess there are at least few of us, who'd like to see Winamp ported to Linux, but it may not be that simple, as they say, it contains so much old, Windows-tied code.

To get back to Linux, when using Winamp (5.8) with Wine, there appears to be differences of how it works/behaves on desktop environments (DE), like Gnome and Mate.
With Mate, which I've tested on VM and on my laptop, surprisingly it seems to work a lot better.

Or at least I don't have to chase it around the desktop with mouse to find where it's hiding.

It may have something to do with X11, that Mate, Xfce and Cinnamon primarily use (being old school, or just plain simpler than modern DE's). Current testing setup:

DE: Mate 1.26.2
WM: Marco (X11)
WM Theme: WinMe
Theme: TraditionalOk [GTK2/3/4]
Icons: mate [GTK2/3/4]
Terminal: mate-terminal 1.26.1

As a comparison, here's what Pop Os uses, which makes Winamp behave in a very quirky way:

DE: GNOME 42.9
WM: Mutter
WM Theme: Pop
Theme: Pop [GTK2/3]
Icons: Pop [GTK2/3]
Terminal: gnome-terminal

So if one wants to use 32-bit Windows apps on Wine, X11-based DE's might be an option to consider.

Things to avoid, when using Wine:

Fractional scaling - I've used 125% on my pc, and it makes Win apps' gui buttons really small, almost unusable, no matter what dpi settings I've tried on Wine settings.

If the Win app gui uses animations, it may be worth disabling them, if such option is available.

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