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General Mach Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« on: January 15, 2014, 01:29:26 PM »
Hello all, my name is Paul and I live in Toronto Canada. CNC is completly new to me, but I have a real love of metal working (own a lathe and made a mill) and electronics (did hardware/software work for most of my life). I love to learn and love to "make things", and with that my new project is going to be a CNC router mainly for PCB prototyping, but sturdy and large enough to mill aluminum and steel. It WONT be a full steel mill, but I want to make sure its sturdy enough to do more than just PCB or plastic (nothing like truck wheels though lol).
After a lot of digging it looks like Mach3 will be the best program for me to use, as all of the multi axis kits out there (motor/PS/controllers) are all mach3 compatable.
The other problem I have is I use Design Spark to make PBC layouts (chose this after having to scrap my old one due to license issues.... wanted money all the time for every rev). I DONT want to have to learn a new PCB software again, and like the idea of "free ware" like Design spark (and not limits like Eagle). So, currently Im looking for a good translation software so I can keep what I have (probably Gerber to Gcode).
I figure the poeple here will know more about the whole CNC "scope" than I am ever likely to learn, so where better to come than to the people who "live it"
After a lot of digging it looks like Mach3 will be the best program for me to use, as all of the multi axis kits out there (motor/PS/controllers) are all mach3 compatable.
The other problem I have is I use Design Spark to make PBC layouts (chose this after having to scrap my old one due to license issues.... wanted money all the time for every rev). I DONT want to have to learn a new PCB software again, and like the idea of "free ware" like Design spark (and not limits like Eagle). So, currently Im looking for a good translation software so I can keep what I have (probably Gerber to Gcode).
I figure the poeple here will know more about the whole CNC "scope" than I am ever likely to learn, so where better to come than to the people who "live it"