Thank you Benny
It would figure that I had not seen those pages before and when i stumbled apon them they were unavailable. what shaun has done is very close to where I want to be in the near future. I have a bridgeport boss, R2E4 Rigid ram, 30 taper, servo machine the bridgeport control is pretty much dead. I have gotten it to home and jog a couple of times but otherwise it is non functional. the control is set up so that it is not possible to interface the PC with the existing hardware requiring a full electronics gut and replace unlike the earlier stepper machines that Hillbilly sells a breakout board and instructions for.
I am going to the mach conference in knoxville this weekend searching for some guidance / inspiration
anyway thanks again for the info
Happy Hunting
archie =) =) =)