What do I need to add to turn threads

no, its a BoB kit my friend assembled himself, and the suspected source of the problems i have been facing. I bought a cnc4pc c-10 to replace it.

not sure of the ratio to spindle of the gears, i will see if i can figure it out

MAG45 wrote: no, its a BoB kit my friend assembled himself, and the suspected source of the problems i have been facing. I bought a cnc4pc c-10 to replace it.

It says "Mesa 7i43" on it.....

not sure of the ratio to spindle of the gears, i will see if i can figure it out

Just rotate the spindle by hand and watch.

they are completely disengaged and free spinning

MAG45 wrote: they are completely disengaged and free spinning

Is there an internal clutch or something? I was assuming they were driven from something inside the headstock, but perhaps that is not the case.

I believe it used to be, i think the internals were remove by my friend when converting it. I was in a wheelchair at the time and couldnt really get in to see what he was doing.

My initial plan was to pull the main pulley off and make and aluminum slotted disk that slides on the drive shaft before the pulley to use for the sensor(s). I need to find whatever sensors I need first so i can figure out where i can mount them and what diameter to make the slotted disk.

You could leave the pulley in place:

ve7it.cowlug.org/spindle-encoder.html

And it will be worth seeing if the 7i43 works, it's a better solution than the C10 in some ways. (You could use the C10 as a breakout for the 7i43, actually, with a bit of cabling)

thanks for the link, looks like a good read for me.

I am so lost on the wiring, or how i would use the c-10 and the 7i43 together. I have had the c-10 a year and have read the instruction 100 times, but still scared to swap it out.

Taking out the stuff in there that was never connected and there was infact a mesa 7i43 hiding in there. never been used for anything, i dont know why its there.

It is probably worth trying to use it, it will allow you to have a higher-count spindle encoder than is possible with just the parallel port.

You will need one of these adaptors to connect between the parallel-port cable and the 7i43.
www.amazon.co.uk/Motherboard-Parallel-Pr...socket/dp/B00PI5XF4U
Or your local equivalent.