I don't know if any of you know this but I am going to start learning the source code for Mach3... I will be helping Art with coding LCAM and Mach3. I think it is going to take me about a year to learn Mach's code (There is a TON of it) so we are in hopes that I can take some load off Art and get Mach to be the best it can be!
So here is the short version about the other guy:
I went to school to be a machinist after working in the family shop building and fixing parts for the local farms and forestry people. We also built race car parts for NHRA spec cars and so on… But we didn’t have CNC so that is why I went to school for machine tool at the Tec Collage (Central Maine Technical Collage). After that I needed more… So off to engineering school (University of Maine) I went! I didn’t really have the money to go to school so I had to work designing and building wood equipment for a local shop and also ended up teaching machine at the university. I LOVED designing and building machines at the shop because there was CNC in the shop! We also had to work on all the CNC’s and retro the machines. Paul Wilson was the shop owner and a GREAT guy (Much like Art) who was willing to teach me everything that he knew about anything (more CNC and Cam)! After I got done my mechanical engineering degree I took a job at a wood mill as the mechanical engineer. The mill is owned by Irving Forest Products and has an output of about 1.5 million board feet a week! That was a fun job but I only had the AH-HA mill at the house and no other CNC’s to play with . As luck would have it the University Of Maine was looking to get a new economical development tool off the ground and needed someone to start it up! I was off like a rocket! Tom and I took it from me building everything in a very small shop to a 30,000 SqrFt shop with 20 people. We design and build equipment, build prototypes and about anything that will help the people in the state. The AMC
http://www.umaine.edu/amc/ is where I learned about some software called Mach1.. I had using EMC but I know NOTHING about Linux. So when I saw his software I was thinking it was at least windows… But when I saw Mach2 I was hooked! The VB was a TON of fun and I just kept working learning VB code at night. I then started to make up the Newfangled conversational set to help the people in the shop.
In the process of learning VB and bugging Art I became friend with him (He should have told me to go away ) He kept telling me that VB was No C++ so I HAD to learn C++(Way to go Art <G> )… LCam is where I have been learning C++ and it is just a ton of fun!
So that is just a little about the other guy…
Thanks
Brian