Hello to all in this forum. I have been a Mach user for some time now. I am retired from Construction Management and Plant Supervision at the College level. I spent three years building my own airplane. After getting it finished and doing the test flights, I needed something else to keep me busy, especially after a very busy last year finishing up the airplane. During my build there were many time that I needed to make a special part. As most were a one of a kind part, I did a lot of hand cutting, fitting, and drilling.
After talking with a lot of other builders I decided there was a need for quite a few custom parts for Experimental Aircraft. That what got me interested in CNC Machining. I was going to build a machine but after much investigation I decided that I needed to start with something at the commercial level if I was going to do a lot of machining of identical parts.
I ended up buying a K2CNC 2514 mill as a starting point. I purchased the electronics from HobbyCNC and built up all of the electronics. I tried a lot of different software programs but finally settled on AutoCAD, Mach3, and CamBam. For me that is a real winning combination. There seems to not be anything that I cannot do using that software combination. I also use Solid Edge 2D CAD program as well. It is totally free and has most of the features of my much older version of AutoCAD. For simulation I use the free program, CNCSimulator, it really does a great job of showing how your GCode is going to work within Mach3.
In just a few months I have come up with quite a few items. I just recently finished my first completely CNC cut Aircraft Instrument Panel. You can see some of the things I am doing at:
http://www.mykitairplane.comOver the years I have explored a lot of hobbies. Photography, Amateur Radio, Stamp Collecting, Flying and building my own airplane, and now into the CNC hobby level production.
Life gets nothing but better! There you have my story.
George