The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Hi Arnold, Here's some places where you might find what you require: Pulleys: https://www.motionco.co.uk/grooved-pulley-20mm-round-belt-p-458.html Depending on the diameter of the shafts of your linear rail and motor, you may need either or both of these: https://www.motionco.co.uk/bore-reducer-bore...

Lukas - please see PM.

All - my latest turntable platter driver script is uploaded to Github, in https://github.com/dn784533/lathe_guide/tree/main/Arduino/TT_2023.

David

Hi both, It looks, from the first picture above, as though the torque tube is upside down; in my recording head design, the torque tube has its stylus hole bored at 18º off vertical (trailing angle). I designed it this way because, in my earlier heads, this had proven to be an optimal angle for embo...

I've been embossing on polycarbonate with my new lathe for about two years now, and to date have had great results using PIAPTK sapphire styli, with good fidelity and practically noiseless grooves. I order the poly in sheets and cut out the discs by hand using a circle cutter; this is much cheaper t...

Hi Lichar - you'll need to review and possibly alter a couple of constant values in the Vinyl Burn software. Find the GenMethods project and go to the General.cs module. Within this module are several constants used by the program. The only two you might need to change are: public const int StepsPer...

Well, I've found it. This is my hand-drawn diagram for the linear rail controller circuit of my lathe. It is designed for stripboard, with the strips running left-to-right. The view shown is of the top of the board. LR_controller_circuit.png As I drew the diagram for my own benefit rather than anyon...

Somewhere I think I have a hand-drawn schematic for the wiring that I used for the Arduino/driver and limit sensor/IC circuit. I'll attempt to find and scan it this weekend!

Hi, For what it's worth, I've added the Windows setup files to the GitHub repository in https://github.com/dn784533/vinyl_burn/tree/master/Setup%20Vinyl%20Burn/Release David Thanks for adding the setup files. Just curious what is the difference between the two files? This link perhaps explains it b...

Hi, Be aware that the Vinyl Burn program and its companion Arduino sketch may not work properly (if at all) without some rework to reflect your own lathe system's configuration. For what it's worth, I've added the Windows setup files to the GitHub repository in https://github.com/dn784533/vinyl_burn...

Even though I say it myself (and with a certain sense of déjà vu), this is looking great! Thanks for photo-documenting your construction process in such detail.

David

Thanks for photographing these - the print quality looks great! The Creality Ender 3 v2 comes in at about GBP 200 / USD 300 or so online; I didn't know that such a (comparatively) inexpensive machine could produce output of this quality. Something I'll have to investigate, I think!

Hi, Don't attempt to power any motor directly from the Arduino output pins! You'll need to power the motor from a separate D.C. supply, which should be connected to the VMOT (or VM) and GND pins on the TMC2208 unit. See https://wiki.fysetc.com/TMC2208/ . For the motor I have, I found that 10 V works...

Hi, I had the parts made by the online company i.materialise.com. You upload your STL files to their website, which checks them for any potential problems such as walls that are too thin. Once everything has been OK'd you can submit the order. It may take several weeks for the order to be printed an...

HI, The green circle does not move - this is by design. The outer edge of your inscribed image will always be at the green circle, no matter what size you set it to. Moving the Start and End radius sliders moves the red inner circle only, and its size relative to the green one will depend on the sta...

Hi, and thanks for the comments! The Photoshop twirl is an ingenious potential solution: cut to disc an image of radial lines, and then carefully measure, at different distances from the centre, how far the line has skewed from where it should be at that point, and then use Photoshop to apply the in...

Excellent work Mark, and particularly so if you're unfamiliar with C# / Windows - quite an achievement. Good idea to include the preview panel and cutting time indicator - I hadn't thought of either of these before, but now I think they'd both be very helpful if you wished to make this version of th...

Right. I've put together a first cut version of some instructions on how to build the lathe described in my earlier posts to this thread. Be aware that these instructions have been compiled some time after the event and are based on my memories of what I did at the time; so please forgive any omissi...

Hi Mark, Yes I think I'm going to call time on supporting the lower bit-rate formats, and only support 24-bit files from now on. There seems to be a great variety of permutations of header data etc in the 1, 4 and 8 bit formats, while - from what I can find on the Web - there are relatively few file...

Mark - thanks for the information about the NTSC greyscale calculation. That latest picture of yours has come out really well. I hadn't heard of this means of converting an image before, but as the coefficients are based on human perception of primary colours it does seem like the most logical and r...

Mark - that Floyd sleeve looks superb! The photo, as displayed on my laptop, seems to stand out better if I look at it from a slight angle to the screen. My home-built recording turntable uses a stepper motor and Arduino. Although the results for music recordings (to listen to, rather than look at) ...