[diecutter]

I presently have two machines. The die engraving machine has 3" by 3" travel and has a feedrate of only 5 ipm max. I'm running it with Mach1. The second wood/mdf cutting machine has a 43" by 43" table and runs at 100 ipm max (more like 30 ipm on most jobs) under Mach2. Each has a dedicated computer.

I'm considering changing both over to Mach3. Are there advantages to doing this other than having both systems the same? I don't have spindle speed control or anythig fancy; just cutting oil flow on the small machine. Any thoughts on this?

[ger21]

I'd say if they work without problems, don't change them. Unless you need some of the features added in Mach3.

Btw, I haven't heard of anyone running Mach1 in about 3 years.

[Haydn]

Depends on the job run times you typically encounter. I know a few mold makers running large mills with mach, they all swear by mach2 as its not as system hungry as 3 and tends to be more stable over long work periods.

Just my thoughts
Haydn

[diecutter]

Thanks for the opinions guys. Actually, I started out with Kellycam and switched to Master5 on the small machine. Run times were 4 hours and up for 3D work in steel.