Router-lathe, one rotary axis

I'm building a router-lathe, using two steppers: one for the x-axis, one to control spindle rotation. The router depth of cut (z-axis) will be managed manually (for now). Basically, I want a system to cut large, long spirals and threads.

Currently, I'm planning to use an Arduino to control motion, but I'd really like to use a computer and g-code instead, to expand its flexibility and not have to hand-code every move.

My question: can Linuxcnc be configured to do this? Can I configure a system with only two axis, one of them a rotary?

I installed the liveCD to a Virtualbox VM to explore the config, but it hung as soon as I tried to configure a system with just an x and w axis. (or maybe it just didn't like being in a VM?)

Is this do-able, or am I heading in the wrong direction. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

short answer is yes , linuxcnc is totaly configurable in that respect , in an X Z lathe then the rotary around z would be axis C
when configuring the ini file you need to keep the axis order as xyzabc , so in your case your using 0 2 5 , your router would become the x axis ( as in a lathe tool ) , and the main longitudal is axis z

i'm not familiar in setting up the axis c in linuxcnc , so no doubt some one else can take the reigns there , their will probably be some tweaking needed to the hal files to probably disable some soft limits to the c axis ,
to enable continous turns past 360 degrees , to enable you to cut the scroll , but other than that , i dont see any major problem .

Thanks! I got emc2 sim running in Virtualbox, and it's no longer crashing.

I made the following changes to my ini file:

[DISPLAY]
GEOMETRY = XZC

[TRAJ]
AXES =6
COORDINATES = X Z C
HOME = 0 0 0

Removed all but AXIS_0 and AXIS_2
Added AXIS_5 with WRAPPED_ROTARY=1

Am I on the right track?

At first, I was assuming that I only needed two axis, since that's how many steppers I'm using. I just realized that even though the x axis will be set manually, it needs to be represented in the program. Without it, there's no cut. Thanks for the great info -- it just took me a while to understand all you said.

yes your on the right track