Hi all
does any one have any first hand  experience in the set up of this cnc router, had mine a couple of months and
not turned a wheel, dont know where to start.

scotsman

 scotsman  im in same boat
  i have cut a few patterns.
  only because i have been helped by people in here.
 i am not going to be much help to you if any at all .
best would be to post your problem  one at a time.
 and i understand trying to learn all of this and how stupid we feel.
 

Hi Mikee

thanks for your reply You are correct I feel like a proper "eegit", theres such a lot to learn so I just have to work through it however a book "cnc for eegits" would help.

Thanks and regards Scotsman

hey scotsman
best info  is in the mach3 manual needs to be printed you can copy it or buy a printed manual .and there are  video's also  wiki (cnc zone u can copy the glossary)
 this what i was told when i first came in here (mach3 is not a plug in play) it was very blunt and  (you have allot of reading) and that is no lie its allot of reading
 i would start at software installation and  configuration ground up.
It is not a good idea to plug or unplug parallel cable while PC is on.
wiki has allot of info too its like ping pong you read out of the manual, you read wiki, you watch the video,  all of the examples hopefully start to fit together.  then when you do get a answer 90% of the time you are refer ed to a video or a chapter in the manual. there is not short cuts even if you bought files unless they where custom made for your cnc and milling stock you are still going to have know everything . 
do your best( everything has a name) helps if we know what you are talking about
You might want to set to metric  i set all my software to standard im thinking now wrong choice on cam /bam software
 good luck
mikee   
 

Hi Mikee

are you saying cam/bam is difficult and not user friendly, one of the replies i have had recommended Vectric for simple 2D and 3D
it appears that for my simple needs scale model making (trucks in wood) it appears straight forward but things always appear that way
until you try it in the physical world,  i need to research a bit more i am not sure if this package has to interface with mach3 or similar are you familiar
with this package?

Thank you for your advice.
 Regards scotsman

hey Scotsman
 I have a DO IT YOURSELF  2 ft x 8 ft cnc wood router cnc and  the controller box and all of the wires i made. I am guessing that you plug your cnc in 110 A/C   the you plug in printer cable ( parallel port cable in and  either a usb port cable or is possible that you have a built in 110 to 5 DC converter  in your controller box  in my case (Break out board) stepper motor (drivers) (110A/C to 36DCV converter power supply) is what i have inside( my controller box)
there allot of different components  in different cnc  controllers  i don't know what you have besides that it was made by zenbot.
For carving Inlay flowers etc aspire might be the faster and more simple.   
metric vs standards  most of the world is metric.
metric is simple,fractions is not as simple as metric
Cam bam is based on the metric system . 
allot of imported g code files are metric 
 i feel that the American standard has been dragging us back for decades  costing the world massive amounts on tooling
i am getting the feeling metric system is  more user friendly in the cnc world than the American standard .
 
 I'm so very new to this i don't know about vectric  what do you think about vectric ? i own cam bam software  mach3  and mach3 addons software plus lazy cam .  at some point my PC will not hold every cab or cam program. 
if you live in a bigger city there is going to be people  that operate or sell  some kind of cnc. 
then the mach operators then the engineers programmers CAD) designers  in everthing from making sky scrapers to nail clippers
to A hexapod cnc .  we can almost make everything in a 2 car garage . me i want to start off by making my grand baby a big bumble made out of Ga boon Ebony, purple heart  and yellow heart wood that might be passed down to there children .   
 MIKEE