I would like to pass along my experiences converting my 3 axis knee mill.
I converted the mill from a early 90's Southwestern Industries package that ran the OS from a floppy and loaded all the programs by floppy. Now I am running Mach Mill, have a great interface control box that can be customized to my liking.
I was very fortunate to find a member here SS Systems Scott (Poppabear) Shafer that has guided thru the selection and purchase of hardware, software configurations and developed software to enhance the project. While I am not new to machining and have installed some "factory" kits on mills at work, this proved to be a steeper learning curve than I first estimated. My hardware was purchased from CNC4PC (Arturo Duncan). As with many new projects there are ALWAYS rocks in the path to success. Most of the rocks in my road were created by my level of inexperience but were solved by Scott and Arturo. Scott developed a plugin to enhance my MPG and allow me to use a hand held switch for Feed/Pause control. I had a hand held switch setup at work and was comfortable using it. The plugin for the pendant Scott developed installed and works flawlessly.Now I have a mill setup exactly as I wanted, with all the bells and whistles(for now) that will allow me to create the projects I could not have done with the old system.
Mach software, CNC4PC hardware and the infinite patience of Scott Shafer have allowed me to breath new and improved life into my old mill.
Now it is time to model up some parts and enjoy the new setup.
