Hello

[Chewieb]

Just about to buy a Chinese CNC3040 and I'm after advice for PCB milling and drilling small parts to bootstrap a bigger mill.

I have a pillar drill but no other "big tools" so the next mill will be ali' plate and extrusions.

With an electronics and S/W background the problems will be on the H/W side :) (I hope)

My preferred OS is Linux (Lubuntu) but I have a Win 7 PC available too. (Oh and Arduinos and Raspberry Pis).

My budget is tight but I have time so I can spread the expense.

Should I go LinuxCNC or Mach3 ?

Chat to ya soon

Chewie

[JAZZCNC]

First Welcome Chewie,

Should I go LinuxCNC or Mach3 ?

Given your S/W background and tight budget then it's a no brainer got be Linux Cnc.!

[Chewieb]

Thanks JazzCNC

mmm sure, I installed LinuxCNC on an old PC a year ago and it died after an upgrade which is strange for a LTS distro ! Maybe my old rig was too crappy :)

Just bad luck ? I'm here to find out more about S/W or system reliability.

I'll hop over to LinuxCNC again and have another look. :)
Cheers