[Chophead69]

Ok so its new to me. I brought a barely used baron mill from the original owner who quite frankly had no clue on machining. Having been used twice in its life it has sat till now.

I contacted cnc masters to ask questions and was immediately told since I was not the original owner I would have to pay 595 bucks for any technical or trouble shooting support...... 595 bucks for advice, help or what???
Or I could buy a whole new updated controller for 2600....with life time support for as long as I own it...
Now I looked and looked but no where can I find any support using this software. My machine was built in 09 so I believe there has been 2 or 3 different controllers built. Now I find it funny that even the newest version still barely does what mach3 will do. So I figured before I pay for support or tech advice for a system only they seem to know.... I will ask for help here?

Now I want you guys to know I am not a computer guy nor do I know anything about build a cnc. But I can use mach3 and I do own a full license mach3 with wizards. So I do have that. I owned a dyna myte cnc mill before and I ran it on mach3. I am hoping I can find someone in Pennsylvania who will assist me or if I can find someone who can build me a plug and play system? That would be great. And yes I would pay you for your skills.

I want to keep my
Dual shaft 34 neme 1200oz motors
Use my vfd to control my spindle with mach3
Use my limit switches that are installed
Use a handheld remote

The machine is a rf45 clone btw. It is stepup with ballscrews in x and y. The z is the acme screw and its using the quill. I would one day love to power the z with a ball screw on the column. I would even love to have a ballscrew on the quill instead. So if you can help with that if possible??? I do have a hand held remote now but I am unsure if it will work with the new system. At the present time the machine is using a USB and not a parallel port. And I have a dell laptop running windows xp pro. I have not yet used the system because I am currently building a work bench that will wind up being a full enclosure with flood coolant. Plus I need to run my single phase 220. Which should be done this weekend. I am going to setup everything to run it because I brought it without seeing it run but seeing the conditions of the mill and how the gentleman who sold it to me keeps his shop (dead on spotless!)
I feel it will be fine. If not I know I couldn't have built the machine into a cnc mill minus the electronics for what I paid. so I cant get upset since I want to run mach3 anyway.right?

So I have posted twice in this forum asking for help. Now I am trying here. Please can someone help me or something? Anyother cnc masters baron owners here? I would also like to mention that i have a jet mill (bridgeport clone) and a Ramco prince 12x36 lathe (which i want to turn into a cnc). And i do have some experience with machining. I am also willing to let who ever helps me have the cnc baron controller and software once I am running on mach3....just throwing it out there. Thanks

[CS900]

where in PA are you? I might be able to help out a bit.

what VFD do you have, and do you have a spindle control board to interface it with mach3?

[Chophead69]

where in PA are you? I might be able to help out a bit.

what VFD do you have, and do you have a spindle control board to interface it with mach3?

Near Lebanon pa. A leeson vfd. And the spindle control is the cnc masters one. So....I guess I do?

[CS900]

A bit of a drive for me i'm afraid, but I' still happy to help as much as i can. I'm not overly familiar with the barton mills. can you snap a picture of the guts of the control unit?

[Chophead69]

No one? ??
All the zx45, rf45 cnc builds and no one can help me?

[handlewanker]

Hi, as I'm a new mill owner and still very wet between the ears when it comes to anything related to CNC control, I think if I was faced with a non functioning mill due to the electronics department, I'd just remove the electronics and go down the Gecko trail......they don't come much more reliable than that.

You already have the CNC retrofit hardware installed so all it needs is something reliable to make it go that you can relate back to and have millions of others to bounce ideas off of when the going gets tough.

Connecting a Gecko to an already established system should be a cakewalk.....or so I'm told.....and it won't break the bank.

If you got the mill as a bare bones sans electronics package you'd have been well advised to invest in the Gecko anyway......AFAIK the Gecko is a plug and play system....very little to go wrong with connecting up.

I think that's the way I would go if the electronics was suspect.....anything that requires a tech support in house is a recipe for big bucks for the tech, and you won't learn anything about the system if someone else installs it....that's the way they like to keep it.

BTW, you should be able to recover at least half the Gecko cost by selling the existing electronics on Ebay.
Ian.

[jalessi]

Chophead69,

There are many talented resourceful members here on the CNCZone that are willing to help however you will have to post additional pertinent information such as stepper motor voltage and current specifications etc. Posting a machine wiring diagram would be really good.

CS900 already suggested you post pictures of the "guts of your control unit". That would help immensely, expedite time and possibly even save you a bunch of cash money.

Welcome to the Zone,

Jeff...