Buying Mach3 and getting support

hi everyone its Keith mach3 machine controller's talking to Scott Nichols from mach USA there price at present for the basic program is around £120 pounds plus extra for the addon,s ,but I have found that in the UK marchant dice ltd are doing the mach for £87.50 plus delivery £4.50 plus tax £13.81 making a total of £105.81 they send it to mach witch send me the code for the program ,on contacting mach in the USA they tell me that the UK marchant dice ltd would be responsible for any help on the program !!do you all use mach3 or is there a better program for machine controllers and has anyone dealt with marchnt dice ltd help please Keith

Mach3 comes as a free download but is limited to 500 lines of gcode.

Would you be using more then 500 lines of code or ?

If you dont have any real plans to use massive gcode files or "gcode" then i dont think you need to buy mach3 ? Maybe the other guys here think diffrent ?

Why delivery plus tax ? It's a web download.

Plus most support is done via the web based or Yahoo forums.
500 lines of code is very easily used up on an engraving file, many run to 30,000 or so lines.

At the price Mach wants for the program it's got to be possibly one of the cheapest components and one that can be used on other machines at no extra cost.

Try asking Gecko for 3 spare drives for you second machine.

John S.

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Originally Posted by Keith Rumsey

hi everyone its Keith mach3 machine controller's talking to Scott Nichols from mach USA there price at present for the basic program is around £120 pounds plus extra for the addon,s ,but I have found that in the UK marchant dice ltd are doing the mach for £87.50 plus delivery £4.50 plus tax £13.81 making a total of £105.81 they send it to mach witch send me the code for the program ,on contacting mach in the USA they tell me that the UK marchant dice ltd would be responsible for any help on the program !!do you all use mach3 or is there a better program for machine controllers and has anyone dealt with marchnt dice ltd help please Keith

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For the money, only EMC2 on Linux comes close in terms of the scope of Mach3. You can have a look at Routout and it may do all you want for 40quid inc P&P. I wouldn't worry too much about support direct from Artsoft for Mach. The community BBS's (MachSupport.com and especially the Yahoo group) have some incredibly knowledgeable people who use Mach in harsh working environments and are all too ready to help a beginner. Don't be too quick to rush into buying the addons unless you really need them.

Personally I don't think you can better the features, usability, and support for the price. As Mach is downloadable software, how do MD justify a delivery charge on top?:o What are they doing for the £4.50(+VAT)?

Oh and BTW, Mach will increase in price SOON (10%).:(

Your chioce Keith :p

EDIT: I'd like to echo John's comments above too regarding the 500 line limit. I've just done a simple sign for my sister, one rough pass, one finish and a cutout, over 2000 lines of code just on the finish pass.

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Originally Posted by Lee Roberts

Mach3 comes as a free download but is limited to 500 lines of gcode.

Would you be using more then 500 lines of code or ?

If you dont have any real plans to use massive gcode files or "gcode" then i dont think you need to buy mach3 ? Maybe the other guys here think diffrent ?

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lee I have the new mach free download but I use the old one it gives you 1000lines but I need more lines mach is good but with the pound and dollar at present its very high price should be around 2 dollars to the pound !!but it well not get to that again for a long time .trying to find out if you all use mach ?if so do I go with the cheep mach or go for the USA mach Keith

I think you should buy it for as little as you can, the programe should be the same from all sellers. Dont pay more then you need to ?

I think its a safe bet that most of us here are using Mach3 and i think you will be just fine, in terms of getting support be it from us or others or machsupport.

lee iv found out that marchant dice ltd are doing it over the internet by way of ebay that's why the extra I think ill go for it yours Keith

Ok np, they have a website so they shouldnt need to sell it to you that way.

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Originally Posted by Keith Rumsey

lee I have the new mach free download but I use the old one it gives you 1000lines but I need more lines mach is good but with the pound and dollar at present its very high price should be around 2 dollars to the pound !!but it well not get to that again for a long time .trying to find out if you all use mach ?if so do I go with the cheep mach or go for the USA mach Keith

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I use Mach and I am very satisfied with it. Like Lee says, get it for the lowest price you can. The support from the community is second to none.

Can't think why MD would want to go around the houses like this by sending you off to eBay.

Anyway, IMHO Mach3 is worth every penny.

Bought Mach3 from Routout and their video's are pretty good if long winded. so far testing is going well after a good set back due to sick time (health, sleep, food are all over rated). Get a good copy at a good price and jump on the learning curve train.

have fun,

Michael