[wjh308]

My friend and I have a 9x49 Sharp knee mill that we want to convert to CNC, and we want to put a 4th axis on it in the form of a Rotary Table powered with a stepper.
We'd like help with sourcing the parts and direction with which way to go.
I am looking to get ball screws, maybe servo drives, and would like suggestions as to which cam software to use. Right now I am leaning towards EMC2, I can make solidworks files all day long but would like to know of a decent Gcode compiler that I can use with STL files or the like.
Thanks, Bill H.

[awerby]

My friend and I have a 9x49 Sharp knee mill that we want to convert to CNC, and we want to put a 4th axis on it in the form of a Rotary Table powered with a stepper.

[Have you thought about keeping that as a manual mill, and looking for another mill that was originally a CNC mill, which may have a broken or obsolete controller? That would be a lot less work to retrofit, and the Sharp would come in handy in the process. If you keep your eyes open, you can often find mills like that for their scrap value. ]

We'd like help with sourcing the parts and direction with which way to go.
I am looking to get ball screws, maybe servo drives, and would like suggestions as to which cam software to use. Right now I am leaning towards EMC2,

[Are you comfortable with Linux, ladder logic, and Hardware Abstraction Layers? If so, EMC might be for you...]

I can make solidworks files all day long but would like to know of a decent Gcode compiler that I can use with STL files or the like.
Thanks, Bill H.

[Mecsoft makes a version of VisualMill that plugs into Solidworks, and I can get you a good price on it.]

Andrew Werby
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