I been running Alibre, CamBam, and Mach3 for years and am very happy with them on my Sherline mill. I just bought a full size mill that was sold new in 1979 as a factory built (Wells Index) CNC knee milling machine. It has been upgraded over the years so no longer runs the same controller software (the documentation boasts the original came with 120 feet of tape for storage!). It currently has WinGCNC installed but I'd like to run Mach3 as I'm familiar with it already. This machine has a cabinet on the back with lots of wiring/circuit boards filling about 2 square feet of space and another cabinet off to the side that is about 2.5 feet on each dimension also full of wiring/circuit boards. Is there any hope that I can 'plug n play' Mach3 to this or is it more likely a complete rebuild of the electronics to convert it to something Mach3 compatible?
I'm really excited that this was a factory CNC machine as it's less likely that it was something that was cobbled together in someones garage but not too excited about vintage electronics/controls. Especially if they start breaking and need replaced.
Thanks,
Mark