Greetings from a CNC Wannabe

Good Evening good people,

My name is Andre, I am 30 and I live/work in the somerset area, Bath/Trowbridge/Frome.

I am here because I need help like many of you guys when you first registered, I already made my first mistake, I bought a 6040z from ebay, I fully admit I wasn't expecting the quality to be amazing I just wanted something to learn and at the same time something able to cut parts for my custom computer builds, the truth is, in terms of construction quality it doesn't seem that bad and it seems solid the problem I have is with the controller. For the life of me I can't make it work, I can't set the zeros and I can't home the damn thing.

I have experience with 3D printers, I own 2 and even thought I understand they are different machines they kinda "work" using the same principals, what I am trying to say is I feel dumb with this CNC, the past 2 days I have been trying to cut my first piece to no avail, and it is all due to the crappy software / controller and the lack of limit switches.

I am almost ready to buy a new "mach3" controller on ebay or somewhere so Install some switches and start using mach3 straight away, At the moment I am using Planet CNC Software to control the CNC which "works" to move the gantry around but not much more.

So the question is, where should I start? Should I just scrap the controller and get a new one or do you think I can get away with the MK1 knockoff from CNC Planet plus some guidance from you guys?

Best Regards
AndreD.