I was similarly confuzzled. Seems like a complex mechanical solution to solve a problem created by choosing a proprietary control system.

Are we still in the 1980’s? Ballscrews and a pendant control seem like more worthwhile investment of time/money.

Not subscribing to that magazine, so I might be blowing hot air, but, maybe rather than toothed pulleys that some people use, he used a large gear that he had kicking around?

Agree with moving with the times; LinuxCNC is actually THE way to go forward. (ducking, as all the Mach3 users take offence!)

Another JohnS.

Perhaps the fact that LinuxCNC (aka. emc2 ) comes with a selection of six different GUIs says something?

I have played with LinuxCNC a bit and it seems to be able to do everything that Mach3 does and more but yes, the GUIs, all six of them, let it down.

For actually using my little mill rather than playing I always use Mach3.

Russell.

Tony – I'm not an "inside guru" of LinuxCNC, just a happy user.

I use cards from Mesa electronics, which are "motion control" cards (Mesa 5i25 cards). I understand that there are some ethernet options. USB seems to not be in favour, simply because the USB device bus can have severe timing issues.

Right now, my machines use Gecko G540s, which are "parallel" port connected. The 5i25 has an option to drive 2 G540s if you want. My Sieg KX1 is driven from a G540 via a Mesa card, and it just flies on rapid moves – most of the time I have it running slower.

People are also using BeagleBone Black boards, which are very small and inexpensive of course, and other boards.

One issue is that many of the people working on LinuxCNC are very smart people, but they are not marketers; the software works very well, and the people are very helpful on the mailing lists and forums.

Another JohnS.

Yes but the nice thing about Mach is anyone can do a screen given the 2 or 3 designers out there.

LinuxCNC requires a competent programmer to alter the screen and I'm told it's not easy.

Here's by daily grind screen.

Everything is on that first screen.

MDI works.

Setting tool length offsets works [ unlike the main mach scree that says "Not implimented yet "

One button switch between imperial and metric.

Diameter compensation for the A axis.

Buttons nice and squared off for touch screen use, in fact you can see the edges of the touch screen. I buy ex one armed bandit screens for peanuts. No one wants them without a nice posh surround but think about the design of these ?

They are made to be hit with a pint beer pot and not break – sod the nice surround, here hold this

All;

Thanks for the messages – it appears (obviously) that both Mach and LinuxCNC have strengths and weaknesses.

One thing that is constant is "change"; the computing market is going through a second revolutionary change right now, so we'll see what falls out of the chaos 5 years from now.

For us "CNC'ers", I expect that there will be revolutionary changes, too; lots of effort being placed in stepper control for 3D printers, local (to me) shops now selling CNC wood-carving routers, and a generation of youngsters weaned on Android, IOS, OSX and mobile.

Who would have thought at the time that IBM-360s would ever be replaced, and now we are seeing the abrupt decline of Microsoft and the desktop PC (*). How will our CNC world adapt??

Will be an interesting ride!

Another JohnS.

* Note – I'm not going to argue the decline of Microsoft and the PC; millions already have – the results are interesting. You can google the pundits, should you wish.