So, I did something brilliant / stupid. Although I have a 5x10 AND a old smaller CNC router, I saw an ad for a 4 x 8 router Camtech on craigslist so decided to take a look.

If you haven't guessed, I'm a commercial shop, and the machine turned out to be from one of my old customers....customers no longer as they had this router.

The router looked in good shape for the age, but had a few quirks.
1) the controller system is dos.
2) that dos must sit on a PC and then it needs to download firmware to a pendant sort of control at the machine. Every time you start up the CNC!
3) the Z travel is 1.25 inches approximately.
4) to partly make up for that low clearance, the spindle mounts in a slot that can be undone with wing bolts and slid up (like for a longer bit).

No vacuum table, and the VFD powering the spindle sometimes starts up in reverse.
....in short, not that interesting of a machine to me.

But, I left saying ....."if no one buys it today, call me and I'll make an offer". They had a new shop-bot arriving......well, they called, I offered, they accepted. $1000 down from $3000

So, here I am.......

I am looking to retro fit the machine with a modern control first and maybe a new Z axis second. I am not a huge electronics geek, but I've been used CNC routers for nearly 20 years so I know my way around. I'm sure I could work with the dos setup if I had too, but as resale might be the end game here, DOS isn't going to cut it.

I like servos, I even have some spare Nema23 servos for my smaller router I could use, but not yet sure if they will fit but I'm leaning towards closed loop steppers as no tuning issues.
I like Kflop, but time is a bit tight right now, so I think Kflop is out as well for the moment....again resale aspect doesn't favor kflop, good as I believe it is.
I don't like Mach3, and I don't particularly like WinCNC (and too expensive for this project).

The goal of this is to get a good, not great, system as quick and easily as possible. Closed loop I want, or would probably go with a G540.

So, I am thinking of the following hardware and would like some feedback.

  • UC100 Control, and probably the CNC software they make too (or Mach3 as a backup plan)
  • C11GS breakout board.
  • Leadshine hybrid steppers and appropriate power supply (don't have the motor size now, under covers of the machine....I may change my mind and try to use the existing motors with new drivers)
  • (Teknic's Clearpath all-in-one servos might work too)
  • Estop system that goes into a circuit breaker that powers the box and will shut down everything (my 5x10 uses something like this)
  • I'll probably wire up new limit switches like the CNC4PC A88 model, I think likely easier to just not try and figure out the old stuff.



A pendant would be nice, but I don't think the above allows for one. I'd ideally like to set the speed of the VFD from the gcode, turning the spindle on an off would be great, but I can live without that too.
I'll have a vacuum table that will probably be just via a manual switch.

I'll post some photos when I have the machine and have some covers off etc.

PS, budget isn't a huge concern, spending a little more to make setting up a little easier is what I want, just not going to sink too much into a router that was bought without a purpose in mind.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice and opinions! Not sure if I have picked the best CNC4PC breakout board, but seemed OK