New member, New machine

[badsox]

Spent a lot of time researching stuff about cnc desktop mills and bought a Sable 2015. all seems to be going well with the learning curve ( only ever used a lathe in the past, not CNC). Only reald problem I had was with the EMF noise from the spindle motor butt I have that issue solved. Now I'm working on the spindle to get some control. I have built a manual speed controller that can be switched on and off via Mach 3 by using a speed controller from an old broken router and an SSR I had laying around, That's about the limit of my abilities as far as AC circuits go. Anyone got any ideas on PWM control? I know I can buy something suitable but I am an infernal fiddler. Too much time and an understanding wife ( or she's happiest when I'm in the shed?)

A more basic question. As CNC is new to me, Now I have a small mill and a large hammer, what other essential parts/ accessories do you think I need?)

[Web Goblin]

Apart from cutters and loads of material to play with you will need a CAD program to create your stuff with and also another program to convert it to a cnc file. So you could need Autocad (expensive but I like it) but there are other good cad programs around that will be loads cheaper and then something like CUT2Dor CUT3D to make your cnc code. Again there are other programs around for this as well. Searching Google will give you a few days worth of reading on the subject. I'm sure some of the other guys will also add their recommendations for you to look at.

Ian

[HankMcSpank]

I've the same machine as you (& also live in London) ....I having some ongoing diffs getting pcbs milled accurately, but still persevering!

[badsox]

I have had some success milling some timber into a teddy bear relief for a box I was making. Took a few attempts but got there in the end. Mainly faults with my design although I suddenly started getting noise from the spindle which bounced the x axis all over the place, cured with 0.1uf cap put in the spindle. I need a recommendation for pcb milling because I am adding spindle speed control and want to build a rev counter so I will use the opportunity to try this machine milling a board. Not planning many pcb projects but thought I ought to give it a try.