Looking for advice

Hello everyone,

I am new to this group and also to the world of CNC,
but I have a lot of machine shop experience as well as
plenty of experience with computers and electronics,
and limited experience with stepping motors.

I want to build a light duty milling machine with
approximately 20� travel in the X and Y axis and 6� in
the Z axis, I am thinking of something along the lines
of a scaled down router design. I don�t anticipate
cutting anything harder than aluminum.

For a cutting head and drive motor I want something
more refined than a Dremel or router. Does any one
have any suggestions for spindles and drive motors?

I have software that can give me pretty much any kind
of file format I want from my cad package and also G
code.

I have seen ads for systems that are driven directly
from a PC but I have also read comments to the effect
that a better approach is to use something that can
interpret a G code file and subsequently drive my axis
from that point.

Can anyone give me some good recommendations for
either approach along with the pros and cons for what
they are suggesting?

I did some research on this stuff a couple of years
ago and recall a site done by a fellow who felt servo
motors were a better choice than steppers, I think he
called himself Mr Bill. I have found some links that
seem to refer to the site I remember but they are dead
now. Does anyone know if he is still around?

Thanks,

Rob




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