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11
Member Videos / Re: Stepperhead CNC Lathe Cutting Threads
« Last post by jackary on February 21, 2026, 04:59:37 AM »
Hi vtsteam,
I used a 0.5 hp three phase motor running via a vectorless inverter. For screwcutting it works best using the largest back gear pulley which gives a 9 to one redution ratio from the motor spindle. This then results on a stable drive to the spindle with adequate torque so that the cutting force does not slow the spindle down. The light sensor senses one piece of 10mm wide black tape on the inside face of the large pulley, so this gives only one pulse per rev. I tried many variations but this worked best and was most stable. I think the utube video I show was made using the mid sized pulley drive, with the inverter wound down to about 10%. So the video shows slight variations in speed due to this. I should really make another video with the back gear pulley driving the spindle, perhaps when my workshop warms up.
Alan
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Software Tools / Re: Experiences, thoughts and rants about using Linux as a newbie after Windows
« Last post by BillTodd on February 20, 2026, 04:10:04 PM »
May not be related to your problems , but windows has a bad habit of flagging disks as mounted and locked and not releasing them .

I have this problem if I launch Win11 and it sees my backup disk (which is ntfs ) . when i swap back to linux, the disk will be locked out until I run chkdsk in windows on it a couple of times.

Win 11 is just a PITA.
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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by ddmckee54 on February 19, 2026, 11:57:37 PM »
This time I remembered to export the new CNC assembly as a JPG file.

The magenta colored bits are the parts that will be 3D printed.  I added all the spacers to the 3D model that will be used to bolt the main frame to the base, and the spacers that will turn the two Y extrusions into a sort of truss.  Coincidently, all those spacers also got printed today, and the center-points for the holes in the base got laid out.  I've got to get the holes drilled in the X and Y rails so I can verify that the locations are correct before I drill the base.
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Member Videos / Re: Stepperhead CNC Lathe Cutting Threads
« Last post by vtsteam on February 19, 2026, 01:26:21 PM »
Hi Alan,  :beer: I see, so you used optical encoding DIY. Was it a single pulse per spindle revolution, or did you have more than one black tape location?

I don't remember if TurboCNC could use more than one. I know it was capable of threading well with one. That does require reasonably consistent spindle speed(s), because the software is interpolating to spindle speed for regulating the pulse rate of the stepper while threading.

What type of spindle motor did you use? Mine is not consistent in speed because it is a DC motor, so it varies somewhat with load. I therefore have to use positional sensing of the spindle, rather than speed sensing. That was made possible by recent low prices for high resolution rotary encoders.

The difficulty there is the high data rate required for processing the encoder output (3000 lines per spindle revolution plus direction sensing in mine). For an Arduino to keep up, I had to convert it into a Forth machine via an alternative bootloader, use interrupts, and integer math. It's helpful that threads aren't cut at very high RPM!

Very understandable that you kept Stepperhead one. Such a fine machine. I also like the fact that it runs on TurboCNC -- which I used to use as well (not with a lathe). I like the compactness and simplicity. I bought a license for the source code back then, too, and the owner of DAK was always very courteous about any questions I had.

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Software Tools / Re: Experiences, thoughts and rants about using Linux as a newbie after Windows
« Last post by vtsteam on February 19, 2026, 11:50:54 AM »
That's terrible, sorveltaja!  :scratch:

I've never had that happen or anything like it.

I would like to help, but I don't know the details of your installed system. I do suspect it is possible to fix it, but I'd need a lot more information to work with.

If I remember correctly you are running Mint in a virtual machine in a Windows system?

Okay, just as a start at recovery, would you be adverse in creating an EasyOS thumbdrive, and then booting from that so we can look at what's happening on your HD? I'm really most familiar with EasyOS and its tools for that.

To create an EasyOS thumbdrive, if you are able to get the following files into Mint (or any other Linux):

easydd makes bootable thumbdrives and installs an OS image to it:

https://bkhome.org/files/easydd.gz

And the latest version of EasyOS (7.2):

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.2/

Usage:

Just insert a USB thumbdrive of 4 or more Gb and start easydd. It will ask you for the location of the image file (the EasyOS 7.2 version you downloaded), and the thumbdrive name. The rest is automatic.

When done, you can re-boot with the USB thumbdrive inserted, and if your computer BIOS is set to be able to legacy boot from USB (before the HD) EasyOS will start up. Answer the first boot questions about country and keyboard, etc. and you'll be good to go.

Let me know if you do any of this, and we can go further.....

ps.

If you can't use Mint (or other Linux OS) to download or run the above files, but you can still run Windows, you can use a program called USB-Image-Tool to write the EasyOS image to a USB thumbdrive. (It is not recommended that you use any other Win USB image writers ...like "Etcher").

USB-Image-Tool is available here:

https://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/download/



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Software Tools / Re: Experiences, thoughts and rants about using Linux as a newbie after Windows
« Last post by sorveltaja on February 19, 2026, 11:11:44 AM »
Yesterday something happened, that messed up my Linux system (it's still Mint Mate). 

My main web browsers, Waterfox and Brave don't launch anymore (they are both flatpaks). Even their taskbar launch icons have changed. Those app related files, and actual executables are still there in the folders, and can be launched from there, but all the settings and bookmarks are gone. Like a sort of "zeroing" or reset.

I have a separate Win7 disk connected, which I was able to access before from Linux, but now I get an error:

"Error mounting /dev/sda2 at /media/<username>/xxxxx: Filesystem type ntfs not configured in kernel"

Updating the system through control center or terminal keeps on failing, throwing errors.

I can't verify it, but there's a possibility, that my Linux system has been compromized.

"I'll test this distro only shortly", using rather weak password. But that "short" testing has already expanded to several weeks. To add to that, I haven't made any system backups either. I have just felt it to be a boring task. But reinstalling the system, redoing all the settings to preferred state, and installing preferred software, is outright tedious.

My important personal files are not lost, though. They are about the only ones I've almost regurarly copied to either usb stick or separate disk.

So this is an example and warning of how not to manage an operating system.

Also, It's always a good thing to have another working, or fallback system, when this kind of thing happens. Whatever OS or device it is, as long as one is able use it to pay the bills, read email, and browse the net, among other basic things.
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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by ddmckee54 on February 19, 2026, 09:34:34 AM »
Got a little more accomplished yesterday, I've added the base and the main frame to the CNC assembly and determined the "safe" locations in the X & Y 2040 extrusions, places where I can poke the holes that will let me start bolting this thing down. The holes through the X 2040 extrusions will let me bolt the main frame down to the base. The holes through the Y 2040 extrusions will let me bolt the 2 Y extrusions together into a sort of truss. That should really help to stiffen up the gantry. I determined that 50mm from the ends of all the 2040 extrusions was a safe location, far enough away from the end that it wouldn't affect any of the threaded holes in the end of the extrusions. (I just keep forgetting to export the main assembly as a JPEG file before I to post - on different computers dontchaknow.)

That let me determine the locations of the 6 through holes, and the 4 counter-bores that are 10mm deep in the base. I initially was going to tap the holes in the base, I've talked myself out of that. I'm going to give myself a little wiggle room, I plan on using four 1/4"-20 bolts in 5/16" holes to bolt the main frame to the base. The bottom spacers that will support the X 2040 extrusions will be 6mm thick. This will give me 1mm of clearance between the "feet" of the endplates and the base - to try and eliminate any twist that could be caused by the high spot I know exists in the base. I designed 3mm thick spacers for the tops of the extrusions to give the bolt heads and washers a flat spot to live. Totaling up the extrusion, spacers, washers, base thickness, and then subtracting the 10mm counter-bore depth I'll need about 71mm, a 1/4-20x3" bolt should work.

For the 16.5mm spacers that I'll need to bolt between the Y 2040 extrusions, I'll probably use something similar to the bottom spacers for the X 2040's. it'll just have an alignment tab on the top and bottom. That could make printing this part interesting, we'll see how the P1S handles it. I may try print this on an angle for strength, like Clough42 suggested in one of his videos. So far with what little I've printed the results have been outstanding. And I am far from being comfortable with either the printer or Orca - just because they're still so new to me.

I also used Alibre to print a 2D drawing of the base, so I'd be able to lay out the holes that need to be drilled in the base. It took me a while to figure out where, and how, to dimension the model so that I'd get a usable 2D drawing. It took me almost as long to find where to change the drawing units from inches to mm. I plan on laying out the hole locations on masking tape first, as a sanity check, before committing to actually drilling the holes. I also plan to test the counter-bore depth on some scrap to see if I'll need to go deeper than 10mm to be able to use a 3" long bolt. A max of 4mm of threads might get a little dicey, bolt threads might not get to the nylon lock. I've still got 20mm of thickness left in the base after the counter-bore, so I can always go a little deeper.
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Member Videos / Re: Stepperhead CNC Lathe Cutting Threads
« Last post by jackary on February 19, 2026, 05:10:52 AM »
Hi Vtsteam,
Stepperhead uses a light sensor sensing a section of black tape on the inside face of the spindle pulley. It now works very well although I did have problems when setting it up with multiple unwanted pulses. I added a small capacitor to the circuit and that eliminated these unwanted pulses, it was a lucky guess but it worked.
As for Stepperhead 2, I would liked to have built it but what would I do with another Stepperhead? It was mainly a smaller update on the original with some new ideas added.
Cheers
Alan
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Member Videos / VORTRIXE OKMO B02 Miniature Model Hit & Miss Gasoline Engine
« Last post by Jim Dobson on February 18, 2026, 12:08:29 AM »
The absolutely fantastic VORTRIXE OKMO B02 Hit & Miss Gasoline Engine Model Hit & Miss Engine

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CNC / Re: It's new to me
« Last post by ddmckee54 on February 17, 2026, 11:10:02 PM »
I managed to get a few things crossed off the ToDo list, AND I've figured out who the culprit is for the lead-nut assembly misbehaving.  It's the Nut-Bolt-Washer assembly, and in particular it's the wave washers.  When I try to constrain the surface of the wave washer to the face of the bolt, I got NO options for the constraint.  Sooo... What I originally did was to anchor every thing in place.  I have no idea why it worked in the Z carriage assembly and not in the main assembly.  I deleted the wave washers from the NBW assembly, constrained the flat washer to where the surface of the wave washer would normally be, and the little toad started behaving properly.  Onwards and upwards I guess.
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