newbie needing a steer

Hi guys. I'm new to CNC, new to LinucCNC and new to this forum.... Hat trick!

I'm thinking linuxcnc may be what I need but I would appreciate your opinions.

I'm building my first CNC machine. Its a custom lathe for turning small wooden helixes, like barley and rope twists. Its very similar to a lathe except the chuck doesnt turn at speed, its just a 3rd, rotational axis for positioning the work. The tool/work cutting speed is achieved by using a dremel-type mini-router, mounted where there would normally be a tool in a tool post.

The xy axes are to move the tool along the work and in and out respectively. Eventually there will be a 4th axis to raise and lower the tool but this is the prototype and i'll set that manually.

It will have 2 nema 17s for x and y axes and a 23 to rotate the lathe chuck.

Just to be clear, it won't be carving to a template like a 3d router. The tool will follow a mathematical path to cut a helix.

the nemas will be controlled by a Mega2560 Control Board attached to an arduino and controller sheild with LCD screen and SD card.

It's the next bit I need advice with. I don't need to get involved in CAD because I'm following a simple calculated path and not carving a 3d object from a model. I'm fairly sure I can learn to write the gcode for this. I can send code to the arduino via usb or put it on an SD card.

Is LinuxCNC the right thing for me to use to write the g code in and test-run it and to send it to the arduino? Bit out of my depth with the software end of things at the moment!

The attached will give you a rough ideal of the design. No steppers attached at this stage and I'll be adding a tailstock.

merlin777 wrote:

It's the next bit I need advice with. I don't need to get involved in CAD because I'm following a simple calculated path and not carving a 3d object from a model. I'm fairly sure I can learn to write the gcode for this. I can send code to the arduino via usb or put it on an SD card.

Is LinuxCNC the right thing for me to use to write the g code in and test-run it and to send it to the arduino? Bit out of my depth with the software end of things at the moment!

No, LinuxCNC does not generate G-code. It is the suite of software packages that can respond to the G-code and generate the necessary commands to drive a CNC system. It's more like the firmware programmed into your Arduino (something like GRBL I assume?).

Generating the G-code in the first place requires other applications - CAD/CAM for example. Or simply brute-force programming by hand.

That said, the LinuxCNC implementation of G-code does have some rather neat handling of loops and nested subroutines that may be useful in your particular application. Maybe you should consider switching from an Arduino-based control system to a LCNC-based one?