Question about new digital stepper controllers

[Jonathan]

Yes, it's just a piece of steel M12 threaded rod that I hardened a bit and ground slots into to encourage it to cut instead of rub, although it does work without doing that. The gear wheel does rotate freely in the toolpost. I should have used a coarser thread since, as you say, the torque is limited otherwise. This gear is part of the mechanism to control the pitch of the blades in the wind turbine I made, so I chose to use a worm drive for the same reasons I gave earlier - it means I can reduce the current supplied to the motor significantly when stationary to save power. I then made the worm gear, which is just an M12 thread, from brass, which I know is not the best material but better than steel:



It's probably easier to just use a 4" rotary table. How much backlash do you get with yours?