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21
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

26
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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Software Tools / Re: Experiences, thoughts and rants about using Linux as a newbie after Windows
« Last post by sorveltaja on February 17, 2026, 09:40:34 PM »
No problem. Expanding these subjects to provide a wider perspective and background information, it's always welcomed.

Anyway, musings about Brave hiccups:

It appears that motd-news.service, or other Linux services aren't necessarily causing the hiccups in Brave; maybe it's the browser itself, or the way it works in this distro.

I turned off Brave's AI features, Wallet, Rewards and Brave newsfeed as well, but still the issue persists.

I've watched some Youtube videos with Waterfox, and so far haven't experienced such an issue. But this is by no means a definite or final analysis.

In the end, I think I'm moving from Mint Mate back to Debian or another distro which has an option to select Mate as a DE, as I'm getting relatively familiar with the way it looks and works.
28
Project Logs / Re: Electronic Leadscrew for the New Lathe
« Last post by vtsteam on February 17, 2026, 03:12:40 PM »
Here's a pic of the guts of my electronic lead screw -- more appropriately it should be called an electronic change gear -- since that was the original intention. The original design used an Arduino Uno R3, but now Arduino Nanos are easily available and a fraction of the size. I didn't want the Uno's onboard connectors for this project, and soldering directly to the Nano board was preferable in every way to pinned wiring.

The little control computer now is practically lost inside the "gearbox" I'd made -- originally I'd planned to put the stepper driver in there as well. But it would be a mess with all of the present switches, control board, and wiring together. Also not great for avoidance of interference. The control board only needs three wires to the driver, so for all those reasons I decided to box the driver up separately with the 24v motor power supply. Seems a more logical packaging anyway.

I'll be neatening and fastening the Nano and wiring down shortly, but have left it loose for the time being to make it easier to connect my laptop to its mini USB port via cable with my ham hands. I need to do that if I alter the program -- and I can think of a few changes I'd still like to make. Pencil indicates the scale of the present control computer... and its rat's nest.  :zap:

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

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Member Videos / Re: Stepperhead CNC Lathe Cutting Threads
« Last post by vtsteam on February 17, 2026, 02:53:53 PM »
Thanks Alan -- very nice. I've long admired your Stepperhead lathe. It is a full CNC machine running on CNC software, not an electronic change gear project, so it seemed more appropriate to show a video of its screwcutting capability here.

If it's using TurboCNC, I'm guessing it uses a hall effect sensor for feedback while screwcutting, rather than an encoder, but I could be wrong.

Did you ever build Stepperhead 2?
30
Member Videos / Stepperhead CNC Lathe Cutting Threads
« Last post by jackary on February 17, 2026, 01:15:57 PM »
Rather an old reserection to this thread, but here is my attempt at making a CNC/manual lathe that can cut any thread pitch etc using Turbo CNC on an old laptop converted to run on DOS. It is rather a long description of the machine, but at the end of it it describes cutting a thread. That is if you can get that far before losing the will to live.
Alan


https://www.lathes.co.uk/stepperhead/
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