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« on: July 06, 2019, 12:27:32 PM »
Hi folks. I am new to CNC, well almost. Back in the early '80s I worked on a project to network a load of Mitsui-Seiki machining centres which had Fanuc controls. Plan was to plug the Fanuc controllers into an ethernet network and then wide area network back to the design teams, eliminating any need for tapes etc. We called it DNC then. (Direct Numerical Control). This really was a first for the use of Ethernet on a production shop floor.
Fastforward to May 2019 and I've bought a Sieg KX1 with a rotary table to hang off the 4th axis. I bought a couple of re-furbished Dell desktops which have clean installs of XPSP3. I've disable networking on both and installed Mach3 and Cut2d one for the workshop to drive the KX1 and one in office to do the designs and simulations on. A USB stick moves data between the two.
This all works perfectly and my regret is that I didn't buy one of these machines before!
I use the machine for making radio components - typically UHF bandpass filters (1GHz to 3.4GHz) which you can make on a manual machine but it's tedious and errors creep in. I've also cut some circuit board tracks and a copper heat sink.
Very pleased with Mach3 and Cut2D all very easy to use and highly reliable.