Quote Originally Posted by GEOFFREY View Post
When speaking to Allen he mentioned that several have been converted to mac 3. He said that the mechanics were very reliable, but the electrics became a bit unreliable with age. The software was designed specifically for signs and is not too user friendly for general engineering work. will be in contact when I hear back.

Regards,G.
I am a signmaker Geofrey lol. The machine I was looking to build & run using mach3 would have had all the design work done using signmaking software as I already have it & am familiar with it, never used the gerber software though & hate having to learn to use new software so that would be one tick in the convert it box lol.

Just didn't want to spend a lot of money converting it if I didn't have to, the fault seems to be on the controller board associated with the x axis. The z axis & Y axis seem to work ok from the buttons on the control panel but the gantry won't move backwards or forwards unless you give it a push to get it started, plus when the machine is switched on you can still move the gantry by hand which you shouldn't be able to do.
swapped the leads around for the X & Y axis & the fault shifts to the Y axis so it's not a problem with the motors. It must be getting some power as if you give it a push start the motor will continue to move it but you can stop it very easily by hand.