Lathe Electronic Leadscrew Part 8: PC Board Assembly

[@squelchstuff]

Thank you for taking us through the whole process. This project is shaping up to be one of the most interesting and comprehensive "let's build". Great work.

[@jimmer147]

Squelch Stuff also so professional, I would stuffed the prototype into a box and called it done!

[@Clough42]

You're welcome.

[@garycooper4964]

as a service rep that has replaced maybe thousands PCB I am very impressed cant tell you how much I enjoyed watching this and Thank you for sharing it with us much better than watching News ,soaps and reality TV

[@MrPatdeeee]

I "think" it is awesome. I know of NO one that can take something like this and make it so simple. Wow! You are truly gifted kind Sir! Can't wait for each new episode.

[@Clough42]

Thanks! That's my goal.

[@annacermed4468]

Great work as usual. Precise to the smallest detail. Please give reserve us some tutos on the oven controller. Awesome.

[@cdrive5757]

Just a few adjectives come to mind. Industrious, exacting, meticulous, superb, educational, advanced, topically broad and my own creations ...scopacious and technofabulous! It's a lifetime apart from my SX42's world of octal tubes. Not to mention my antiquated but beautiful old Logan 920 and South Bend Heavy 10. Thank you for the glimpse into the modern world. I never thought I'd see this level of home shop in my lifetime. Whoduh thunk CAD PCB design, schematic capture, Electronics Spice and Wave Soldering at home! This generation is clueless . Hell! They take free higher education *(HERE)* for granted! Wakodahatchee Chris

[@stevekline2948]

For all you reflow newbies, you don't need all that fanciness. Putting it in a standard toaster oven without the high tech controls works just fine. The natural temperature profile of the toaster oven is pretty close -- close enough for most common uses. Just watch for the solder to melt, turn it off, and crack the door. If you have both large and small areas of copper, like 0603 pads and barrel connector pads (as seen in the video), you might want to do a little pre-heating, because the thinner sections will heat up faster than the sections with large masses of metal, which means some components could be damaged while waiting for the solder on large pads to melt. I set it on a coffee pot hot plate for a few minutes, with a paper towel between. You could also just use the toaster oven's thermostat on a mid-level setting, like 150-200 F. The materials really are not that picky. For the sake of comparison, I've seen people successfully use an electric griddle to reflow PCBs.

[@christurnblom4825]

I gotta hand it to you. You are a bad ass. I was one of those kids who took apart all his parents electronics whenever they left the house & thought I'd go into electronics when I was 10 or so but as they say "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans" I found that I like tedious work but I like to work more with my hands so something like hand engraving came more naturally than muttering through all the math & study Other study it takes to learn electronics & programming. Probably a lack of patience, I'm guessing. I went to school for manual & CNC machining a while back & now I know that I'm just going to have to continue to force myself to learn those things if I want to make decent money because even though I prefer manual machining, it takes years to build up the experience & reputation it takes to make good money at manual machining. One thing that's been useful from learning electronic & computers though is that I'm the guy they turn to in the little shop I work in when things go wrong with electronic gadgets & such. It looks like you've learned it all though. (Figuratively speaking, of course) While I might be able to trouble-shoot and do basic repairs & build basic circuits, I certainly couldn't do what you've done here. I watched all previous videos in this series & I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with your extensive knowledge base. I got into machining school from asking the local tech. school about building a cnc router & I had no idea about all the fields of study that would open up. I was kinda stagnating at the time. Keep'em coming. Great stuff!

[@berniehernandez1680]

I just finished bread boarding this project. It just worked. well my Clearpath servo had a inverted Enable. I am waiting for a better encoder to arrive. Very little wiring. The Workspace App was a little challenging at first. My spindle gears are on the inside in oil. Maybe I can add gears to the external spindle. I would like to get a "Through Hole" board. I won't be buying a reflow oven soon and the pads are too small to hand solder. Great Great work. I am thoroughly impressed. I have been impressed by very few on KZbin. I look forward to more projects. Thanks

[@deadlydragon72]

Great content! I need to go look through your videos and find out your background, you have a great breath of knowledge and understanding of many complex subjects. They are all learnable skills (programming, electronics, cad, diagrams, gears, machining,ect.. ) and then add on top of all of that videography, solo acting, scripting, editing.... I am early in my engineering carrier, but hope to get to a place where i can develop many similar skills and the time and money to indulge in similar work/projects/hobbies. Thank you for your incredible investment and sharing of knowledge!

[@Clough42]

You hit the key point: learning. My formal education is in Computer Science. Everything else is self-taught.

[@1607rosie]

James it's been a pleasure watching your videos. I know other people appreciate your willingness to teach us while doing your project. Never new what a flow oven was and was totally surprised how it worked. I was a CS major in college back in the early eighties. Never went to work programming. I will definitely go thru your videos to see what else I can learn. You've got such a good organized thought process. Thanks!

[@SlamminGraham]

Dude, this whole project is awesome!!!!!!!!!! Every aspect of it. Such high quality content, ranging from engineering to circuits to machining to coding to precision work of all kinds. Great!!!

[@Clough42]

Thanks!

[@niwachien]

Thank you very much. I've purchased your parts and all the others to install on my G0602. You are the man!

[@thenet0120002]

Excellent ! Have this same idea to use for a mini lathe because it is annoying to have to play with gears to create threads or to vary the feed rate for different materials plus keeping sink with the main spindle and the lead screw. Most people go straight CNC which is fine but this idea allows you to do quick manual machining without playing the gear game or programming to make something . CNC is great for runs of the same part but not for mixing parts to machine. So many people don't understand why you might want to do this but it is great if you ever ran a lathe with this ability. It reminds me of the ease that i can vary the main spindle without gears or pulleys to change speeds. This is the next step.

[@EverettsWorkshop]

The fellow who has the GreatScott! channel uses JLCPCB and although he's sponsored by them all the boards that he has gotten from them look good. I have never gotten boards made but yours look pretty good to me. The solder paste mask and jig is a very cool idea too, especially if you have tons of these to make. Was cool to see the SMD process too.

[@KenGrunke]

Outstanding demo! I had no familiarity with modern PC board fabrication, and this put me on the edge of my chair...kinda reminiscent of the Apollo moon landing in my teens LOL!

[@somebodyelse6673]

Clearly not your first circuit board rodeo. Another step closer to making the benchtop lathe community happier than they've ever been before! Thanks for again sharing your work.

[@Neptune730]

I can't wait for your next project now. A small simplified Pick and Place machine. LOL Your videos and explanations are great. Keep up the good work.

[@gamerpaddy]

you could have added two holes on your board and a dot in the solder layer, so the stencil will be cut at this spot. then you could use indexing pins on the stencil for alignment

[@TheOpinionationer]

I can see this is heading towards a live-tool machine with a shop-made bar feeder. I aspire to your attention to detail. Thanks for this series!

[@eugenecarkoski4591]

excellent presentation video , wish that was available back in the 70's

[@Cromwell648]

Strangely enough, it's very therapeutic to watch 🇬🇧 Thanks for sharing your undoubted skills with electronics.

[@Clough42]

Cool. A couple of people have commented on that.

[@danielminskey]

Great stuff. it is so amazing watching this whole process. Cant wait til you start selling these. ill be your first customer.

[@MrPatdeeee]

AFTER I buy it. LOL!

[@Clough42]

There appears to be lots of interest. Once it's solid, I'm sure I'll have something available.

[@danielminskey]

@@Clough42 Kick Starter?

[@boldford]

@@danielminskey Good idea!

[@probablynot9998]

Simply excellent content from beginning to end. Extremely high quality instructional material. Thank you.

[@frigzy3748]

Big thumbs up for using the StickVice! It's absolutely the best way to hold PCBs. I got PTFE jaws for mine, so they don't melt.

[@markhelms2287]

Superb! Has to be the best series ever on KZbin. I sure hope you kit this project.

[@misterfixit1952]

You have remarkably steady hands. You should try one of the vacuum pens for surface mount components. They have different sized tips and one button on the handle to release the part.

[@AJBtheSuede]

If your camera rig has a live HDMI/SDI output that holds active when recording - just plug a computer monitor into that, and you have a low-magnification, VERY high quality, large viewport microscope... Just a hint :) Thanks for all the great work!

[@LunaticCharade]

"you can probably see this better than i can" As long as theres a decent latency, it would be a very usable setup

[@D4no00]

You should try kicad, very powerful tool, with no limitations to license or features.

[@DavidLindes]

Right around (actually before) 1:50, I was having the exact same thought. :)

[@danielminskey]

This awesome project just screams kick starter...this is why they made kick starter...to fund awesome projects. This project is deff awesome.

[@chrisburn2117]

Have watched you from the start of the project and enjoy your format and explainations of how to, why and what not to do. I look forward to seeing it all finished and attempting this project myself.

[@gorak9000]

The kapton tape on the switches is also so the pick and place machine has a flat surface to pick it up with vacuum and stick it on the board. Lots of connectors that have holes in the shells have kapton squares on them too so the pick and place machine has something to move it around with and get a seal on the suction cup.

[@adamthethird4753]

I have never seen surface mount components assembled. Thanks. I cannot imagine how good it must feel to see this come together. And you don't need to worry about us judging you, I think you've proved that you know what you are doing. ^_^ I am saying this in reference to your defense of the camera being in the way. You said it a lot in the video.

[@Blackcloud_Garage]

Extremely high quality instructional material.

[@joshuamckown3145]

This would be a massive quality of life improvement to my Sherline lathe. I definitely want one. Brilliant work!

[@OMNIBOT1000]

Your like the Bob Ross of Electronics

[@oliverniekrenz]

I don't own a lathe (yet), but I already feel like buying it beforehand as a must-have. Great work and very inspiring.

[@bostedtap8399]

Excellent tutorial James. Enjoying this project. Thanks very much for sharing.

[@bobkelly2447]

Quite well done I must say ! very educational ! THANK YOU !.... my electronics experience was back in the heath kit HW 101 days, (I built a ham radio...) but it was with much bigger components ! and I've often wondered how in the world these printed circuit boards are actually made.... solder paste and an oven......makes sense now ! but I prefure something I can hold without tweezers ! LOL thank you for bringing this old man up to date ! I couldn't do that stuff you just did if my life depended on it ! HA !!!!! .... I still say that system is absolutely perfect for the home built lathe guys, like ratherbwelding or a thousand others... my own home built lathe suffers from the same ailment... i cannot single point thread with it..... build them and supply real good instructions with it and I am sure you will be a rich man in the future ! because even I would buy one ! and I'm poorer than a church mouse ! LOL ....Bob.........

[@MecMod_Homeshop]

Thank you for everything, you are incredible, you teach in a very gentle way, all is clear and well explained, is a pleasure see you, You inspire me, the problem is that will be more then a challenge for me, I don’t have experience in programming, I try to document and study how to do it, my problem is programming and pc board construction. I’m from Italy . Dis you sale the pc board? Thanks for all I will continue to see your videos. Ciao

[@pittsford2]

Fascinating, informative, enjoyable. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

[@routercnc9517]

There must be people watching this who are tempted to buy a lathe just so they can add this ELS !

[@Clough42]

I have seen a couple of comments to that effect. That'll be fun, too.

[@michaelcox1225]

I have been designing a lathe that would be a more modern version of the gingery set up this would be a nice improvement. Thank you for the highly informative videos.

[@rudddude5294]

i got a g0752 and would love to have this!!! great work on your project and your videos! got my credit card ready for when you get this on sale!!!

[@Clough42]

Cool! When I have something, I'll let everyone know.

[@paulmace7910]

Ok, next project is a pick and place for the surface mount components. You can do it! I’m amazed at how comfortable you are with the design process. I’d have fixed it with a ball pein hammer a long time ago.

[@LambertZero]

Have you thought about adding "electronic thread dial" function so you can disengage the halfnut? Especially when cutting a metric thread with an imperial leadscrew.

[@LambertZero]

@@SystemsPlanet I find your lack of faith disturbing.

[@gcewing]

I'm not sure exactly how that would work. The controller would need to know how far you had moved the carriage while it was disengaged. Maybe attach another encoder to the gear that drives the existing thread dial?

[@LambertZero]

@Greg Ewing, there's a couple of things you could do. You could read the DRO scale if you have it. Or instead of disengaging the halfnut, you can push a button and tell the controller to stop threading, move the cross-slide away and then push another button and tell the controller to rapid-traverse the carriage away from the chuck, preparing for the next pass. That's just what I came up with off the top of my head. Either way would help running a metric thread to a shoulder on an imperial lathe.

[@TheWireEDM]

@@LambertZero That would be easier as a full blown CNC. But, threading to a shoulder would be easy if the circuitry would have pause-input, so you can have a micro switch on the lathe ways and it would say 'stop' to the VFD. It will stop the lathe in less than a second if there is a breaking resistor installed.

[@chrisj4570g]

Very interesting to see how surface mount components are soldered. Yet another amazing video. 👍

[@Linrox]

I will be buying one of these for my (yet to purchase) future lathe. Also can you (if not already done) do an update on the changes made in the 2.1 version, thanks. Love your work, a real inspiration.

[@edwardaloftis6705]

Cool I was into electronics when i was in the Army.

[@gwharton68]

You get new PCB's and we get earthquakes here in Southern California, on the Fourth of July I think you got the better deal. Great project.

[@toogr84u]

Next time you should have a look at designing in KiCAD, it's open source and has a pretty handy 3D viewer that helps you visualize your PCB design. Otherwise great work!

[@pcrengnr1]

Lets not forget that CERN also got involved with the project.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

For me it's KiCAD or nothing.

[@JohnDoe-rl9pp]

I'm working with Kicad, and want to replace my other CAD programs with it. It's fully featured and Open Source. I believe pretty strongly that commercial CAD tools are becoming straight up abusive in their license requirements/business models, and we need to promote the open source alternatives. But man, there are still a lot of legacy issues that can make it a massive pain in the ass to use. Some little stuff like the ancient plotter font, some puzzling stuff like the way it's impossible to type coordinates in when moving components, and lots of irritating stuff like the inverted y axis and bad layer management.

[@Anonymouspock]

@@JohnDoe-rl9pp I think there's a advanced move tool, which should fix that issue. It was on a development build from 6 months ago so might be in mainline by now?

[@Clough42]

I might have a look. Every new tool comes with a learning curve. If you haven't noticed from my skill set, I spent a lot of time learning new things. Time for learning ends up being my primary limit.

[@canberradogfarts]

@Clough42 you need an item called "Pik n Paste" to hold the components in place while you are placing them. It's a (usually red) viscous paste that you apply to the center of the component footprint. It air dries quickly to glue the component still until the reflow completes

[@MichaelLloyd]

I've been binge watching this series. It's really interesting. I have an Othermill (now Bantam Tools) for making prototype boards and I have a smaller lathe from Little Machine Shop. I haven't attempted any threading with it. This series is a perfect blend of electronics and machine work, both of which I have an interest in.

[@RRINTHESHOP]

Well done James, looking great.

[@srmofoable]

I usually use old hotel room keys as a squeegee. For one offs, I find that making an alignment jig from business cards taped to the table on 2 sides works well to accurately align the next pcb to the taped hinge stencil.

[@Clough42]

Oh, that's a good idea. I've seen it done with scrap PC boards. Dave Jones also has what look like purpose-made PCB corner frames that he uses.

[@damsaddles9911]

Thanks again for sharing and doing such a good presentation. I have my TI Launchpad, stepper and controller and encoder. Can’t wait to get one of these boards off of you.

[@richards6452]

What a great video, enjoyed every second, can't wait for the next one, THANK YOU!

[@ragmachiningruffazguts1834]

You Sir are a Genius! A pleasure to watch.

[@adrianjeffery7950]

Thank you for sharing your project with us all its incredible stuff you are an amazing engineer, hope I can purchase these complete assembly boards from you. looking forward to your next video.

[@JohnK8]

I have mine working with the bread board, Stepper mounted, and the encoder mount almost finished. Anxious to see what you decide on selling some boards. Thanks for the great video.

[@garyw.elmqurst6272]

awesome Its amazing what you can do and the knowledge that you have shared I am like Daniel cant wait to you start selling these this is what I have been looking for for my lathe. Thank You for your sharing and hard work. It is no easy task making the video a long with the work making it all work.

[@The52brandon]

Only one piece of advice regarding the manual soldering: MOAR FLUX. But in all seriousness, hell of a job. On the whole project really. I was watching it to maybe get some ideas for my 600x600x600mm build volume 3d printer build that I'm in the middle of. TBH, I just gotta pull the trigger and finish it

[@syncon303]

28:55 I always thought the kapton tape is there to make a nice flat landing surface for suction cup of pick&place machine.

[@AllenCavedo]

Fabulous design work.

[@chrisarmstrong8198]

Another superb video. Thanks for the detailed "how-to" on building surface-mount PCBs. Looking forward to the CNC conversion on your lathe. Then the whole threading process could be automatic. C'mon, you know you want to ! ;)

[@augustvonmackensen9785]

I will definitely try this project ! Gears have been a bug bear of mine for ages..

[@slarti42uk]

I'm in for one of these if you're shipping to the UK. I've already got the TI board, UI board, stepper and controller, just waiting on the rotary encoder. Excellent project, and the level of detail I love to see as I learn so much. Thanks again.

[@jimthompson4110]

I love this project. I use the same oven controller and my results are the same.

[@MoraFermi]

You may want to consider switching to an integrated level shift chip, to cut down on all the soldering.

[@spehropefhany]

Nice work. ADuM3160 is a transformer isolator, by the way (obligatory minor nit).

[@jesondag]

All those SMT components can be soldered by hand easily, or with paste and an oven, or hot air reflow gun. No need for through hole in my opinion.

[@paulmorrey733]

Great video and fantastic project. Thanks for sharing

[@pravado81]

excellent work. You make it look so easy.

[@lwilton]

Trick with a camera: set up a 17" monitor on the table past where you are working, and watch what you are doing in the monitor. You just have to learn to look one place and reach someplace, else, which might take a while. My experience suggests that if you had used 0805 components on that board, soldering by hand with a hot air gun or iron would be fairly trivial, but 0603 and smaller is almost impossible to manage.

[@thenet0120002]

You need a vacuum placement tool CNC to apply soldier and place parts then use you oven to finish . I want to make a multi placement tool and paste maker to make these smd easier.

[@David_Best]

This is a terrific project and outstanding video. Thank you. I would love this for my PM1340GT. I'm not sure I'm up for doing surface mount components, making a flow solder oven and all that. So what are your intentions here? Are you planning to make this available as a kit, completed unit, or ??? I do have some electronics experience, but I am not interested in getting a Ph.D. in the TI micro controller, programming it, etc, so I would need a pretty complete kit solution, or some kind of pre-assembled turn-key electronics package. Can you expound a bit as to your intentions here? Also, I'm sure my threading screw on my 1340 would need a larger stepper/servo, and wondering about all that - maybe another episode perhaps? Thanks again.

[@karenauntipode2684]

Impressive!

[@ncut5547]

Cant wait to see what its likely to cost be just an awesome addition to my lathe with very little to work out when u need to thread plus its instant ...keep up the good work videos are just awesome thks

[@psion5mxfred]

Super work. Can't wait. Regards Ruaidhri Dublin (Myford Super 7 plus)

[@Clough42]

Thanks!

[@georgepatterson69]

really enjoying the series thanks for sharing

[@steveac3]

Thanks for the excellent video and commentary.

[@lesthompson5907]

so you gat it done i have an old Colchester X school modal i would like to fit one to how much will it cost me . from you it as a six thread to the inch nut no led screw ? ! LES

[@mchiodox69]

Brilliant...great job!

[@jamesbrewer3020]

Keep the great content coming.

[@Angelobuildsmachines]

Shuddup and take my money😊 i would love to buy a populated board. Well done.

[@lightaces]

I really don't get why no one in the Maker world has caught on to KiCad for electronics design....it's free, completely open source, very full function (16 layer PCB's? You got it! 3d rendering? It's there. You name it, it's got it.), and it's good enough for the folks at CERN, who have taken over the development and maintenance of the software. The learning curve can be steep, but it can do ANYTHING you need. Impedance matched traces? Yup. Auto routing? Sure....ish. Automatic sanity checks? (No unconnected terminals you don't want, no overlapping traces, etc.) Absolutely. They've even been developing some sim add ons. Well worth the effort of learning.

[@Anonymouspock]

If you're looking for other good PCB design software for open source hardware, consider KiCad. It's come a long way from where it was a few years ago.

[@Elektronaut]

This video series is so well made it really makes me want to rip the change gears off my lathe :-)

[@thaumaturgicresearchcounci4180]

Great! I would like a through-hole version or a pre-assembled board though, not surface mount please :)

[@twobob]

tiny point but could you not parallel two of the 650 resistors to remove the single 320 for the other led. in a pick and place this could save you a reel slot. Tiny point. great series

[@rene-jeanmercier6517]

You are such a professional designer. It is so much captivating to see you going through your thinking process. BY the way, what kit did you used for the reflow open? Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. Regards, RJM

[@GeorgeK356]

Super project and really neat home reflow process. Looking forward to the next episode - whatever will he think of next?

[@juweinert]

32:10 A wild Blue Shop Towel appeared...

[@andriosz]

Awesome, but where is the video about converting that toaster oven? :)

[@Clough42]

I thought seriously about doing one, but there are excellent step-by-step instructions on the manufacturer's web site, and I didn't want to delay this series any further. It's also nice sometimes to just make something without the cameras rolling. :)

[@larry527az3]

James, I've been following along through the build and really like what you're doing here. Can I assume you'll be offering kits of some sort for sale in the future? Like you, I'd love to be able to eliminate changing gears on my lathe. I have an older 13x40 Enco that I suspect would be a good candidate for your kit. Either way, I'm really enjoying your process and knowledge here. Thanks!

[@liamjohnz7896]

Great stuff. You Sir are vert smart

[@jonathanpayne9956]

Hi, again well done! amazing, I have read what you said about finishing the project and publishing! indeed it could just grow and be updated continuously if you let it! i totally see that, how about creating an interface, maybe serial , to allow the user to add on boards. maybe you could achieve the finished project with the designed functionality and then via the interface the user can modify the system to control the servo to stop at the end of a thread and to start at a certain chuck angle, just what i am thinking, darn sure you have many more ideas that could be implemented by add ons if the base board had a control input and output the counts from the encoder and scaling?

[@Alex145180]

Thanks for your great work! Definitely want one for my lathe. Will there be a stop and return function for the carriage?

[@lukandros]

i did`t get my lathe yet, but this gonna be the first upgrade

[@AmoghRaoawesomeboom]

I'm just watching this series of yours to obtain a better understanding of how the TI booster boards work with the launchpad device. So, can you please correct me if I'm wrong? When you stack a booster pack on top of the booster headers on the launchpas board, only the header pins not occupied by the booster pack can be used as GPIO pins by the launchpad. Is this right? Or is it that even the occupied pins can be used as GPIO by the launchpad. For eg:- Each header has 20 pins, and suppose the booster only used 8 of those 20 pins. Does this mean that I can only use the remaining 12 pins from that specific header as GPIO pins through the booster pack stack, say to receive inputs and transmit outputs? Or does this mean that I can still use all the 20 pins of the same header through the booster pack? Thank you, and regards.

[@jamesjinks8080]

Well done, James! I have been watching this build and enjoying it thoroughly. Haven't had any intention to make one myself, fiddling with the change gears gives me a chance to do several 'sanity checks'. Had a question, tho... wondered if you have accidentally built in a nifty capability. Occasionally, on commercially made machine bearings, the oil groove is (forgetting the correct term here) is a spiral back and forth pattern (lissaduous?) and I am wondering if this is possible? Jim

[@billsmith5166]

Magic.

[@kellyoconnor5953]

James, would you mind posting the Gerber files for the board you designed or point me to them please? I have my Servo/stepper motor, TI board on the way, LED display coming and would like to get the board ordered and on the way. I plan to install this on an older 9 x 20 lathe I use daily.