The Art of Remote Troubleshooting

“My X axis stopped working. What’s wrong?” I was in pre-and post-sales technical support professionally for about 20 years of my career. I’ve provided support over-the-phone, in the shop and in the field. I consider myself to be pretty good at...

Unipolar vs. Bipolar stepper motors

Why does HobbyCNC use unipolar stepper motors? And what is the difference between bipolar and unipolar stepper motors?  Is one better than the other? Let’s start with the differences between the two types of motors*. A unipolar motor works from a single polarity...

Drive screws – 1/4-20 threaded rod vs. Acme screw

I have been thinking about my decision to use a 1/4-20 threaded rod to drive the axis instead of an acme screw. The answer is the typical engineering answer: “trade-offs”. Threaded rods can be a very valuable tool for a lot of building projects, and you...

Autodesk Fusion 360

I finally made some time to sit down to design-and-print a part using Autodesk Fusion 360. There is a lot to learn, but this is one very powerful CAD/CAM software. I was able to go from my design in Fusion 360 straight to my MakerBot printer software. Pretty damn...