Conversational CNC Vs. DRO

I have been pursuing a mill equipted with Proto trak controls for several years and still come up empty. In the search I found my current BP mill that has been retrofitted with ball lead screws and an aftermarket variable speed head and larger motor. What drew my attention to this mill was the two stepper motors that were attached to X and Y handles. My new job has a newer proto trak SMX bed mill and no one knows how to use it. The owner bought it thru an online auction sight unseen for less than $5000 . I can only wish to find such a great deal like that. It's like jumps4 said, you got to love CNC Now I just need to find one for the shed.....
 
jim are your steppers working on the bp? with just 2 axis xy you work just the z, it waits for you to move z and hit enter each pass
i started out small with a sherline to see if it was something i could master i am not a machinist but now i'm building a bigger zx45 mill.
from a few really low to no cost softwares i have its faster for me to maybe draw an "L" and bring it up in "d2nc" tell it to cut to what ever depth inside outside what ever. zero the part and hit start in mach3. i'm a klutz with my manual mill or lathe compared to my cnc. jigs and setup take longer than the code for most things now. if you havent seen it check out d2nc. if you sent me a dxf file i could send back the g-code in probably less than 10 minutes. it's only problem i have found so far is pockets with islands but i split them into 2 shapes and it cuts them fine. I am not a sales rep for this guy. my whole problem was the cam softwares when i started cad i could get by. but the cam softwares seemed cryptic to me and would make weird codes sending the machine zooming off into neverland ( i'm sure this is my lack of knowledge of the product ) one was lazycam i guess thats why mach3 dont support it. i'm an amateur at this and i always find an easier way to do something if you got any ideas or question just ask i wont guess trying to help out.
steve
 
Sorry for taking so long to reply. My mill is missing the controls. I believe the PO mentioned that it broke and was removed. The only things that remain from it's CNC days were the X and Y servos or stepper motors which were still attached. This mill was also retrofitted with ball lead screws. I have since posting this, taken the motors off and just enjoy the mill as a manual mill. Those motors are now collecting dust as paper weights on my work bench.
 
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