Hi Glen, and welcome to the site.
Not into paintball.......heck, let me try and make you  confortable ..... 
RICH

Hi all,

My name is Dave and I'm very new to this world of CNC. Having inherited an old Techno gantry router with a very old MAC100 controller I have been floundering around trying to get it working. Having spent months on and off I finally came up with a solution - buy a new controller!

Don't know if I should have persevered with the MAC100 but at least I'm up and cutting. I decided to buy Mach3 to run things and I have to say that I'm very impressed
with it, although being new means I have no benchmark to compare with.

I am just installing some home switches, the X & Y seem straight forward enough, I'll think about the Z later. Maybe I'll be back with some requests for advice.

I spent 24 years ain the Army looking after the Challenger tanks for 7 Armoured Brigade so I have an engineering background, now I have a signmaking business and therefore print and cut a lot of signs. One area of interest I have just now is find out how the routers with optic work. They use some sort of camera to pick up registration marks and then use these to calculate where the various shapes are and then cut them out. Is this something that Mach3 supports? Can anyone offer any advice on this process and whether is can be installed DIY?

Look forward to reading the various topics that are bouncing around.

I've been studying to become a machinist since Jan/2009.  I've started learning G codes and doing simple programs.  Would you advise a beginner to purchase Mach3 to use on a laptop as a simulator? Such as to verify his programs if they respect: maths... radius compensation, code activations and cancellations, .... blah blah Bela.   

Is Mach3 could to simulate various post controllers: Mitsubishi, Okuma, Fanuc, ... ? If not, which one are used.

I see that there are various videos and pdf's.  But is there a step by step learning guide for beginners (or dummies) to learn about all the feature and uses of Mach3?

Hello Machsupport world!

I've been in machining for 28 years as of this posting.  Two years in Technical College where I learned CNC programming and 26 years at a job operating swiss automatic lathes making medical parts.  I've always been interested in electronics, wood carving, fabrication, computer and cnc programming, inventing, music and instrument making, among other things.  With the exception of being in rock and blues bands for thirteen years, I haven't gotten to do too many of my other interests more than dabbling a little here and there.

Recently, I decided to develop a project that would encompass as many of those interests as I could and the result is that I've decided to build a CNC router!  On that router I intend to make some carvings, maybe some intarsia and probably more than one electric guitar!  I'm almost drooling to get started!  I don't know why I didn't think of doing this years ago!

Looking into this project, I came across Mach3 and could tell that it's something I certainly want to explore and probably start using.  Right now I'm going through the tutorials and getting my installation configured.  I missed un-checking the option box for installing the port driver.  So, now I'm looking into these forums to find out if the software can be run in simulation mode even with the pp driver installed, or if there is a difference in what I would see if it can be.

I hope to get to know many of the people in this forum!  Is there a physical gathering that anyone has ever arranged or anything of that nature?  It might be rewarding to do so.

We'll be talkin'

Hi All
I'm new to machining , I'm new to CNC, I'm new to CAD, I'm new to CAM and I'm over 65 so I can barely remember what I don't know!
I have a son who is a machinist, an expert in CAD (solidworks), CAM (mastercam) among  others) , NC and CNC machining and is a manager for a precision CNC facility .
SO I have LEGAL COPIES of Solidworks and Mastercam at home to learn and use. As a learning tool we are building a CNC router and hope to control it with MACH 3.
We are still in the design stage (Soildworks learning experience for old dad) and are gathering up parts to build with. I am lucky in that if I can dream it (and afford the material) we can use the equipment at the company he works at (on our own time of course) to build the parts for it!
I have been lurking at this forum for a while and thought it was time to join so I can pester the great minds here with questions as they arise
gaston (John)

Hi,

Names Ed, and I live in Rugby, England.  Ive been a CNC machinist for 5 years, programming long-hand G-code for most of the time, but recently becoming a Mastercam programmer.  All my work is on lathes and vertical borers.

I'm a model engineer in my spare time, and build miniature steam engines which I run at the Rugby Model Engineering Society, of which I am Vice-Chairman.

I'm just in the process of buying a Lillian turret mill from my workplace.  Its got a damaged spindle motor and CNC unit, and is uneconomical to repair - for work.  For me however, it represents an opportunity to buy a good machine for scrap prices, and give it a new lease of life with new motors and new CNC.  I've been introduced to Mach3 by a friend, and have looked throught the website and am hugly impressed - but it looks like Ive got a lot to learn!

I hope to be around a bit, but if I disappear for a while dont dispair - I've got really busy times ahead of me at the moment, and I've got some pretty big projects on the go with my other hobby, Land Rovers.

Cheers!

Hello I new to CNC and Mach3, Just built a table top mill and have just now got Mach 3 running good

hi   
 
my name is Moreno and I reside in italy (rimini) 
 
you excuse if you don't understand me, but I don't know very well the language.   
 
I am happy to have found you. 
 
You are a lot of experts on mach3. 
 
regards

Hello...and HELP!   
My 1st project.  Everything seems ok...until XP loads.  I can jog the axis manually (board jumpers), until xp comes up.  Mach 2 makes the lights work (in manual - jogging)...but not the motors.  My step, and direction pins, and outputs appear correct.  The board instructions list enable pins...I'm not sure if I have these set up correctly.  (I have a program called partest...I can cycle the y steps with this program.)   Any help would be appreciated....thanks.

found the problem....my enables were set to low.