Hi Mates,

Im new to CNC and just bought myself a Sherline 4400 lathe and decided to convert it to CNC.

I am overwhelmed by the information I can get from this forum regarding cnc conversion and makes very hard for me to decide what should I buy with my limited budget.

First, I am aware that Sherline sells a CNC kit for the sherline model I have and its out of my range.

After reading a few threads, a lot of hobbyist tell to get the Gecko 540 as driver and gladly its within my budget.

So I did a few search at ebay and found this package with stepper motors included:

Gecko G540 w Three NEMA 23 Steppers 300 oz in Motors | eBay

I want to know if this package is expensive or if possible can you recommend something more appropriate for my lathe if this one is overkill.

I've seen a few chinese brand packages which are very inexpensive and I want to know if that is enough for my lathe.

For the softwares:
1.) I currently use Inventor 2014 and will learn solidworks
2.) I've read about Bobcam so I guess I will be needing that as well
3.) I am planning to use Mach 3 ( although I am not sure if this will work with my macbook pro with windows 7 installed)

Lastly, I am very new to this and don't have any experience with CNC. So as much as possible I want to buy something that has step-by-step instructions how to assemble things.

Cheers,

Ed.