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General Mach Discussion / Using Mach for Laser and Sherline
« on: June 18, 2019, 07:50:38 PM »
I am a modeler, and build and fly RC airplanes, and at some point will be scratch building retractable landing gears and other items, as well as cutting out the parts for building the planes.
So I currently have a Sherline(which I have yet to use) with the Sherline Linux OS on an old machine with the parallel port, but have issues because somehow, some way the power supply is AC and not DC
so haven't been able to do anything with it.
I am contemplating getting an 80Watt laser cutter with a 25 x35 bed as well for cutting the wood parts.
I ran across several different threads on Google while researching and came across Mach3 and Sherline, and Laser. Now I don't know what Mach3 is, but sounds like a cutting/milling/CNC program that drives the controllers, is that correct?
If so, can it drive two different devices from the same computer, IE the mill and the Laser, as if I was choosing a printer, and if so, what is needed to make it work? The Laser I am looking at has one of those cheap chinese controllers that uses corelaser, and have found that a Ruida would be a better controller. I also have the Parallel Sherline 4 axis controller. (I hope it still functions after plugging in the AC controller and having the power supply burn up. Controller has no odor of burnt parts which is a good sign)
For creating the output, I am considering Vectric Cut2D pro. From what I found so far, it looks like it should be able to create the G-code for the mill and exports as DXF, which I believe is what the Laser uses with the CoreLaser software. I looked into CorelDraw, as many use it for laser engraving, but the trial I am using I am finding a bit difficult due to what I am trying to do, trace parts from a PDF of the plans. Probably something very simple as getting the later right, but the plans are 77 inches by 27 inches in size.
Does this sound like something I can use?
So I currently have a Sherline(which I have yet to use) with the Sherline Linux OS on an old machine with the parallel port, but have issues because somehow, some way the power supply is AC and not DC
so haven't been able to do anything with it. I am contemplating getting an 80Watt laser cutter with a 25 x35 bed as well for cutting the wood parts.
I ran across several different threads on Google while researching and came across Mach3 and Sherline, and Laser. Now I don't know what Mach3 is, but sounds like a cutting/milling/CNC program that drives the controllers, is that correct?
If so, can it drive two different devices from the same computer, IE the mill and the Laser, as if I was choosing a printer, and if so, what is needed to make it work? The Laser I am looking at has one of those cheap chinese controllers that uses corelaser, and have found that a Ruida would be a better controller. I also have the Parallel Sherline 4 axis controller. (I hope it still functions after plugging in the AC controller and having the power supply burn up. Controller has no odor of burnt parts which is a good sign)
For creating the output, I am considering Vectric Cut2D pro. From what I found so far, it looks like it should be able to create the G-code for the mill and exports as DXF, which I believe is what the Laser uses with the CoreLaser software. I looked into CorelDraw, as many use it for laser engraving, but the trial I am using I am finding a bit difficult due to what I am trying to do, trace parts from a PDF of the plans. Probably something very simple as getting the later right, but the plans are 77 inches by 27 inches in size.
Does this sound like something I can use?