Boxford VMC 190 (and a Denford micromill)

[irving2008]

Welcome...

Normal procedure is a guts transplant. keep the steppers and spindle power and replace everything else with new drivers, breakout board and PC running Windows/MACH3 or Linux/EMC2 or a few lesser favoured flavours...

[Screwdriver]

Welcome...

Normal procedure is a guts transplant. keep the steppers and spindle power and replace everything else with new drivers, breakout board and PC running Windows/MACH3 or Linux/EMC2 or a few lesser favoured flavours...

Ouch!

That seems a little severe! What is the reason for that? I assume the machine is capable of creating simple shapes, brackets etc. as it stands. Perhaps when I become a little more creative I can think about upgrading the Boxford. At the moment I just want to drive the Denford, prove it works and sell it on.

I am looking at the Mach3 software at the moment as it happens but I haven't got to the bit where it needs me to "rip the guts out". ;)

Here is my understanding:

I need a physical connector either a serial or parallel lead, either to the serial or printer or USB port of a suitable PC
Machine specific driver for the above for the Denford or Boxford (or is the driver universal?)
Machine control program (Mach3, VR Milling, <something else for the Boxford) I assume this program handles the 3D model to machine control interface
A 3D design package (I am a Google Sketchup expert but I don't think that's gonna help!)

I have some experience with PC packages and 3D packages and I think I'll be able to unravel the process for inputting this into a CNC device. It's early days though and for now I'd be happy to be able to simply dirive either or both of them with a very simple program just to convince myself they work.

Many thanks.


Screwdriver.