Re: What does everybody use...

In a message dated 5/17/99 2:26:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, pencad@...
writes:

<<
I would like to know briefly what the majority of members here have for
their setups. Please take me from the PC(including all hardware and
software) all the way to the cutting head. This is just to be ensure
that I have the grasp that I feel I am starting to get up to this point.

>>

Hi Don,

I'm currently running a homemade CNC router. The stepper motors are NEMA 23
size that I salvaged from old (heavy duty) printers and an HP plotter. The
driver board is a Camtronics 2 amp 3 axis chopper driver unit that plugs into
the parallel port. The computer I'm running it with is a 133 mHz 486 with 16
meg and a 100 mb harddrive. DeskNC for win95 runs the G-code and directly
controls the stepper motors. That's the only software that I have on that
particular computer... A 30,000 rpm Porter Cable laminate trimmer is the
cutting head.. With router bits, I have no trouble machining aluminum and
brass with this setup..

The computer I use for design is a 350 mHz K6-2 with 64 meg of SDRAM and a
2.5 gig harddrive..

Flash Cut's demo package won't run any motors but the DXF to G-code
conversion utility works quite well as far as I can tell. For a CAD program,
I'm still using Keycad complete for DOS.. a very old and rather limited
software, but I'm familiar with its quirks and limitations. Keycad will
output DXF files that the Flashcut demo reads with no problems so far..

FWIW the fly in the ointment for the Cadvance 6.5 that was released freely
recently seems to be that it will not export a DXF file... that capability
seems to be disabled in the giveaway package...

Hope this helps...

Jon Croad