is posible stepper motor in continuos rotation?

Hi there.

I have the followin question:
Is posible that one stepper motor work in continuos rotation?.
Like cnc lathe. The axes c is in rotation and the others axes have lineal movement.(the rotational axe must be controlable )
which one firmware is the best for this aplication?
Very much machines that i see, uses linuxcnc for control and paralell break out board.

Thanks for the atention.

All stepper motors have continuous rotation, meaning they can freely spin 360 degrees and is positionable in any fraction up to the resolution of the step (e.g. .9 [400 steps/rev], 1.8 degrees [200 steps/rev). Stepper motors themselves don't have the capability to position linear. You'd have to have some sort of mechanism for translating the rotational movement into a linear one. This typically would be done with belts and pullys, a lead screw, etc. There are stepper linear actuators that would directly move linearly.

Thanks for your answer.

My question is:
is posible to make one cnc lathe controled with the firmware of 3d printer (like marlin)?
The cnc lathe have 1 axe with circular movement and 2 axes with linear movement (lead screw, etc).
the circular movement must be variable in speed.

thanks for the atention.

Not sure what you are asking for.

In a lathe the spindle turns continuously at a set speed, so it is more like a tool head than an independent axis.

A 3 or 4 axis CNC mill with a rotational axis is similar in that it has a chuck to hold the workpiece, but the chuck is an independent axis and it's position is controlled, it can rotate freely in either direction but does not rotate at high speed unlike a lathe.

For a CNC mill, then in principle you can use printer firmware to control each axis. You just send the printer X,Y,Z coordinates and the steppers will be moved accordingly. However, some printer firmware treats the Z axis specially, so you would need firmware that treats X,Y,Z equally.

There are some firmwares more suited to CNC work which may have support built in, eg. GRBL. There is also Smoothieware which is more flexible in the types of machine model it implements.

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thanks for your answer.

The machine is cnc filament winding machine but with polar winding.
this machine has one trhead in reprap (cnc routers,mills and hybrid reprapping), but the winding is´nt polar.
for polar machines the velocity of the spindle is diferent in the edges, that in the rest of the long.
I ask for cnc lathe, because is the most similar machine that i know.
The GRBL don´t support continuos rotation of 1 axe.
The smoothieware i´m not sure. In reprap, the firmware is probed (almost for 3d printers).
the marlin modified could be the firmware correct, but need modifications.

thanks for the attention.