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Direction pins are either 5V and 0V corresponding to each direction (you can specify in the setup which corresponds to + and -).

Step pins sit at one voltage and briefly "pulse" to the other...

Sorry to hear about your frustration. On the plus side, it's good that your son is taking an interest in CAD, and that you're involved with him too.

I've had great success with AutoCAD products...

Ahh - re-reading the posts the simple answer is that the compressor is not turning at 1/3 of it's rated speed and therefore demanding 1/3 power (as it would be for a 3450rpm rated comp turning at...

Good stuff! This month marks 20yrs that I've had my 7x10 mini, and I've used it for production at least 80% of those years.

Every single part on the machine has been upgraded - even the bed when...

In the context of CNC and bit-wise parallel port I/O like most stuff on this site, you're looking for a breakout board so weak signals are amplified for use by opto-coupled drives.

Steve...

Colin:

Don't bother. About a decade ago I replaced the mini-lathe drive with this one from McMaster: McMaster-Carr

$143, US made excellence and zero issues. I had gone through several of...

I'm considering going there, as a visitor rather than exhibitor. One of my colleagues gave me a free pass and it's not far away in Chicago.

I happen to sell a PIC based stepper translator IC already, which has code downloadable too if you want to take a peek.

DAK Engineering - U2 Stepper Translator

This is selectable half/full...

There's not THAT much difference, but I'd lean toward 1045 if those are your only two choices.

I find A36 to be generally of much lower quality, usually it's recycled stuff, and annoying to...

I'd stick with the fewest adapters and interstitial pieces you can manage, having better concentricity on an endmill is key to tool life and easier machining. It's a problem if one flute in four is...

I generally design for 120 deg of contact or better as a rule of thumb. With more detail on the pulley sizes and belt type it can be calculated exactly, but 2hp is not a lot at all so you'll be OK...

Steppers have a holding torque rating which is the max torque they'll ever deliver. This falls off with speed and also rotor position & heat.

You need to design very conservatively as although...

Sure. These pictures are pretty old - approximately May of last year. I've since gone to a ballscrew on Z and added some way covers. Interestingly enough we have almost identical designs for the Z...

I have a setup very similar to yours (mini lathe headstock, linear rails on Z and X with steel plates) for production turning - I use one of the surplus 2hp treadmill motors and a variable speed...

G78 for peck arbitrary axis on TurboCNC - but it's more powerful to write a loop macro to do it as the g-code does a full retract which isn't necessary.

Most CNC's will take loop input of the form...

I do a fair bit of delrin production work - just program your CNC to "peck turn" and you're done.

It also works to take a few radial plunges every 1/2" or so down the length first and then do a...

I think for a lot of machining it's overrated, but until I get the code for it working right you can do the following in TurboCNC:

Increase your start/minimum speed for each axis as much as you...

Hopefully you're further along on the learning curve now - just try some simple g-code commands to get the hang of "thinking in coordinates", and then follow the directions for ACE (or some other...

Sorry, but the radius compensation function G40-42 is not yet implemented in TurboCNC.

For engraving this is probably not important, your code will cut "on the line". Radius compensation...

Just wire the step and direction lines from the motor drives to the port.

The parallel port itself is pretty simple. Pins 18-25 are all grounds. Pin 2-9 are output, pins 10,11,12,13,15 are...

Hmm... Your code is fine, and at 2" dia I'd say you're probably pretty free from backlash effects. 3 wiggles per arc? This would make sense on a badly tuned servo machine, but you said HobbyCNC...

That's puzzling. Which version? I wonder if this could occur if the acceleration is set really high for XY.

I guess you'd want to confirm step sizes in XY, this would make more of an oval though...

Nice find! A little while back I picked up a pick and place machine - looks pretty similar to yours actually, for the cost of a forklift rental.

Originally I wanted to make a light duty mill out...

I've heard you can yank the spindle out of a 5C spin indexer for this. Depends on the size of the lathe you want...

Well, do understand that heat treating won't straighten a bent part, but it will relieve the internal stresses so you can skim it flat.

Annealing steel is easy, just heat to red-orange (when it's...

I had a user with this problem (only in TCNC, not PCNC), after a few rounds of troubleshooting it turned out that the computer wasn't grounded so stray electrical noise from the steppers/spindle etc...

I'd just take the mating end of the dremel shaft off too (maybe whack the end off of a beat up flexshaft) and connect it to your stepper with a coupling.

Otherwise, fire up a lathe and cut what...

Well, for good power to size and being able to control the speed, brushless is great.

If all you want to do is control the speed (a plain spindle), a full brushless servo drive may be a bit...

Not the same, at least on my mini-lathe and mini-mill (I'm talking Grizzly here). Mill is an R8, little bit different gearing internally, has a drawbard seat on the backside. Lathe is either...

Probably the easiest way to do this is with G81 or G82 (drilling cycles), just enter the XYZ and feeds for the first "hole"/polish spot, then only the X's and Y's as needed after that. With a little...