Gentlemen

Although fairly new to this field of CNC machines, I have many years experience with commercial CNC mills and lathes. Now retired, I missed the ability to design and machine components which can only be made by CNC. I purchased a Sieg KX3 and sourced a refurbished PC to the specification required by Mach3 and started the long journey!

May I start by commending those amongst you who have spent probably years making possible CNC machining at such a low price. The machine suppliers who liased with the manufacturers and sourced the hardware, the authors of Mach3 and last but not least those who setup and run the technical support Forums without which this voyage of discovery would have been a nightmare.

However, the experience for a newbie is like buying a new car, a full toolkit and a boiler suit so that when the car breaks down at the roadside you can adjust a wheel bearing or modify the fuel injection software so the engine will start again.

It seems to me some of the problems are down to poor quality control during assembly, yet most are due to the PC not communicating with the machine reliably. How often do we read on the Forums Z axis OK but X and Y won't move, Z axis judders, spindle speed fluctuates. Invariably the responce is Sounds like the computer is not talking to the machine correctly.

Surely the time has come to design, build and even supply purpose built motion controllers so that people like me with little knowledge or interest in electronics can get stuck in to machining. I can see much potential for a business here especially when one sees the rate at which new members are joining the Forum, World wide. Machine sales are likely to increase not decrease in the comming years and for many of us the extra cost of a purpose built controller would be worth it.

Somewhere out ther is a Hero who will pick up this batten and run with it, and the sooner the better as far as I'm concerened. They might even earn a very good living out of it and well deserved it would be.

I hope this thread is the catalyst towards reliable micro CNC machines as they can and should be.

Geoff Vaizey

P.S. Put me down for the first one off the assembly line.