Welcome to the new home for CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO as CAD-CAM-EDM_DRO on Groups.io. Below is the farewell message posted to Yahoo. The time when Yahoo will no longer accept new content for this Yahoo group is 28 October, only two days away. This group is being transerred to a new group on the Groups.io web site and is already in the transfer queue. This message is being posted because it has become apparent that the transfer will not complete before the deadline for new posts on Yahoo. Indeed it may be several weeks before the transfer completes as the transfer queue has grown dramatically over the past week. An archive has been captured in case something goes wrong, but that only preserves content, not subscriptions. Because of the delay, I have decided to go ahead and announce that the Yahoo group is closed and to enable new subscriptions and posts to the Groups.io version of this forum. If you wish to participate before Groups.io sends you a welcome email, you can register manually on the web or via email. Otherwise you should be automatically subscribed to the new forum on Groups.io once the transfer is complete, and an email will be sent to confirm your subscription or to not subscribe if you do not wish to join. The web link to view messages in chronological order on the new forum is: https://groups.io/g/CAD-CAM-EDM-DRO/messages You can also view in a format threaded by topic here: https://groups.io/g/CAD-CAM-EDM-DRO/topics If you prefer to interact with the forum via email, the addresses to use are: Post: CAD-CAM-EDM-DRO@groups.io Subscribe: CAD-CAM-EDM-DRO+subscribe@groups.io Unsubscribe: CAD-CAM-EDM-DRO+unsubscribe@groups.io Group Owner: CAD-CAM-EDM-DRO+owner@groups.io Help: CAD-CAM-EDM-DRO+help@groups.io Once the group is transferred, I will contact previous owners and moderators to ask if they wish to participate in similar roles on the new forum. If the number who accept is insufficient to assure the future of the group, new owners and moderators will be solicited. Hope to see you on the new group. Regards, Steve Stallings www.PMDX.com

Groups.io has notified me that the transfer process has completed. It looks like the messages, files, and photos all made it OK. Initially 7411 subscribers were being sent notifications that they were being subscribed to the new group. As expected, some people do not wish to continue being part of the group and declined to be subscribed. This is normal because many people joined on a whim and have moved on to other things but had not previously bothered to unsubscribe. Hopefully this group will continue to thrive.

Topics in this post: Maxnc: I take it this driver unit is a phase driven type and to do step direction I need that type driver board. Comment on Sales: I get mail lists because of the lists narrower topic focus and the lack of off topic posts, flames, etc, etc, yada, yada, yada that comes with some News Groups. I agree that some FS items are valid and invite a look at making a location for this type of thing. Didn't with have a drop box type place available. A link to Netiquette may help, though the list can go as it wants, er,as,The Manager Allows" But anyway, the drift I get is "subject related" selling is permitted, but no flames. Being unemployed right now, I can't afford to buy anything anyway, most of my stuff is made with junk and I end up with a lot of small steppers, 3 phase blm, and dc motors with controllers. Robert Ash

To: All on the list, The N.A.M.E.S. (North American Model Engineering Society) has agreed to have a special display space for CNC and computer-related projects and products in the upcoming Exhibition in Wyandotte, Michigan, April 29 & 30 - There will also be a 2 hour CNC Seminar on Saturday the 29th - Everyone is welcome to come and display and also have some time to speak at the seminar if desired - There is no charge, other than the nominal entrance fee charged at the door ($3 or $5, can't remember which) - The N.A.M.E.S. organization is doing this in order to hopefully promote more intereste in low-cost and home-built CNC systems and related "stuff" - If anyone is interested, please contact me for more information - I have agreed to be the contact person and attempt to organize the operation - This is a great show and they have a long waiting list for space so it is obvious that they are interested in promoting low-cost CNC - This should be a good forum to see demonstrations, meet with other interested people, and share experiences - Your help in making this a success will assure that they continue this project on a yearly basis - I've conducted a CNC Seminar for the last couple of years at the show and it has always been a standing room only deal with people spilling over into the hall - This year they have doubled the time available and are going to try to arrange for a larger space for the meeting - If you can't attend but would like to have something displayed, contact me also - We are interested in photos, samples of products or work, video tapes, literature, or whatever you would like to display that is related - If you have a commercial product to sell that is OK but since this is a "freebie" they have requested that sales efforts be primarily based on an educational approach rather than a "hard sell" - Samples or video tapes will be returned after the show if desired - This would be a great opportunity also to meet with some of the folks who we all know by name from the List but have never met in person, and talk over our mutual interests or display some of our efforts - Roland Friestad cardinal.eng@... Phone - 309-342-7474

Try some of these Links for starters: Jones on Stepping Motors http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/step/ <A HREF="http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/step/">Jones on Stepping Motors</A> Using disk drive motors <A HREF="http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/diskstepper.html">Using disk drive motors </A> http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/diskstepper.html Dro Software. ( theLindsay Homepage is down right now, but hope back on line soon, by S Lindsay) <A HREF="http://www.loganact.com/mwn/dro.html">DRO SOFTWARE</A> http://www.loganact.com/mwn/dro.html DRO Software <A HREF="http://www.mcs.net/~kulaga/dro.html">DRO_Plus Project - by Tom Kulaga </A> http://www.mcs.net/~kulaga/dro.html Cad freeware, plus more. <A HREF="http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/index_all.html">Completely Free Software - Index Freeware Free Shareware </A> http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/index_all.html CNC Retro-Fit Links <A HREF="http://www.mendonet.com/cnclinks/index.html">CNC Retro-Fit Links </A> http://www.mendonet.com/cnclinks/index.html I have nothing on EDM right now, can you help us out?? I am looking for a good source and low prices on 250 to 350 in/ounce steppers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Need three, Bill Anliker Alb. NM

I am still learning all about this beast myself, so be patient. This letter is a welcome, and a test for me. I have had quite a few wrong addresses on invitations sent out from the list signed at NAMES, so still trying to get it all together. Thanks and Later Bill

Hi all, I subscribed to the digested list and have not received the first digest. Therefore I don't know what, if anything, has been discussed. Maybe a good starting point would be for those who were at NAMES, to tell those of us who weren't, about the conversation that brought about the creation of this list. Are we going to talk about homebrew EDM/DRO? If so I'm in the process of mounting X & Y .0001" res. encoders to my Bridgeport. These are connected to two channels of a US Digital 4 channel encoder interface card in an old 286 PC. I wrote the software for this card. Are we going to talk about CAD? I've had the dubious honor of spending the better part of the last 25 years in the CAD industry. Are we going to talk CAM? I started my computer career designing CAM machinery for the ancient technology of wire wrapped digital circuit boards. We used small computers back then, they were only 6 ft. high in a 19 inch wide rack cabinet, with the latest storage media available...paper tape readers! So, let the games begin! Mac Homebrewer and tinker by choice, Computer geek by trade.

This list represents an area of increasing interest for me. I am looking to build model and miniature steam locomotives once I retire, but have never used a milling machine . . . and my lathe experience is limited and dated. The idea of easily replicating a locomotive in multiple scales is interesting. Now a NAMES question: Was MAXNC -- a Home Shop Machinest advertiser http://www.maxnc.com/ -- there? I have written with the SASE and received no response. Thought it might be all were at NAMES . . . Charles Brumbelow Nashville, Tennessee, USA

<A HREF="http://cadvance.com/fitnew5.htm">Free v6.5 re-release</A> I just spotted this today, was High Dollar and now available free. We are up to 51 listees Bill

Hi all, I subscribed to the digested list and have not received the first digest. Therefore I don't know what, if anything, has been discussed. Maybe a good starting point would be for those who were at NAMES, to tell those of us who weren't, about the conversation that brought about the creation of this list. Are we going to talk about homebrew EDM/DRO? If so I'm in the process of mounting X & Y .0001" res. encoders to my Bridgeport. These are connected to two channels of a US Digital 4 channel encoder interface card in an old 286 PC. I wrote the software for this card. Are we going to talk about CAD? I've had the dubious honor of spending the better part of the last 25 years in the CAD industry. Are we going to talk CAM? I started my computer career designing CAM machinery for the ancient technology of wire wrapped digital circuit boards. We used small computers back then, they were only 6 ft. high in a 19 inch wide rack cabinet, with the latest storage media available...paper tape readers! So, let the games begin! Mac Homebrewer and tinker by choice, Computer geek by trade.

Hi all, During signup I checked the option to receive the list digested. This does not seem to be happening. I've also received a copy of both of my previous post, did anyone else get them? Mac Homebrewer and tinker by choice, Computer geek by trade.

Hello, all, I have had a home shop for about 17 years, now. A friend of mine and I bought a 1941 round-ram Bridgeport mill from a LARGE home shop business that closed. We went after the auction or sale was officially over, but there was still a lot of stuff. There was this little farm house on a hill, and about 50 derelict semi-trailers parked out back. Each trailer had about 3 machines in it, some of them looked like the machine shop on a submarine! You can imagine a huge horizontal mill, maybe a surface grinder, and a bandsaw, for instance, in a 20' trailer. There were festoons of 440 V 3-phase wiring running from trailer to trailer. Anyway, one of the leftovers was my Bridgeport. The auction or sale (I don't remember which) was set up by the guy who bought the whole place out, and was getting rid of the machinery he didn't need. He came up with a set of B&S #7 collets for the M head's spindle, which was nice of him. There was an end mill holder frozen into the spindle, and it took us 2 weeks of building bigger and bigger gizmos to get it pulled loose. A year or so later, we got a 10" Atlas babbit-bearing, change gear lathe. The spindle bearings were in awful condition, and fixing that is not so easy. I eventually upgraded to a quick change gearbox and a roller-bearing headstock. Later, I moved up to the 12" Atlas. About 2 years ago, I saw an ad in the newspaper for a Bridgeport J head, and bought it out of a guy's garage. It needed a lot of work, but I have it now on my mill, and it is a big improvement. I bought the axis drives and spindle motors from an Excellon printed circuit board drilling machine when it was being scrapped some years ago, but didn't get around to trying to install in on the mill until last year. I use the EMC program from NIST for CNC control, and I love it! I have one of the hideous $189 4x6" bandsaws, but it is sure a lot better than a hacksaw! I also have a 3' Chicago finger brake, a Roper-Whitney 5-ton punch press, an AC welder and an Oxy/MAPP torch, mostly for brazing use. I also have a setup for making printed circuit boards. I drill them on the NC mill. I made my own laser photoplotter for artwork, with 1000 x 1000 dot/inch resolution. I have an etching machine that they threw out at work. 10 minutes and a couple dabs of epoxy made it as good as new. You might want to look at my web pages, which have some pictures of this gear, at : http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~jmelson/ There's probably more, but that is about all I can think of right now. Jon

Here is a new URL/link to S. Lindsay's DRO site. <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/handengraving/dro.html">DRO SOFTWARE </A> http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/handengraving/dro.html This is site with the directions of building your own DRO Bill

Looks like in time this will be a good site. Dan

Here are the links for Names and Prime for anyone that might not know what they are. Bill <A HREF="http://www.loganact.com/names/">NAMES Show Info</A> <A HREF="http://www.evmes.org/photo.html">PRIME Exhibition Home: Pacific Rim International Model Engineering Society </A>

I just checked the Lindsay DRO page, and all links are operational now. Thanks Steve. This is the one I posted before, but it had a few problems. Also be sure to spell Angelfire correctly if you type it. Wrong and you get XXX site. <A HREF="http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/handengraving/dro.html">DRO SOFTWARE </A> http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/handengraving/dro.html bill

cbrumbelow@... writes: I do not recall seeing them there, and they were not listed in the venders list in the guidebook. Bill alb. NM [Um, could someone start from the beginning and tell us what NAMES is or was? Was that a machine show? I happen to be a discount online distributor for MAXNC, and unlike them I do respond to e-mail, so if you have a question, or wish to order something they make, let me know. I can get you any of their products, including their new larger MAXNC-15 mill, for 5% off their list prices. Since this is my first posting to this list, perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Andrew Werby, and I'm a sculptor who has become fascinated by the possibilities opening up due to the CAD revolution. Suddenly things that only people working for Fortune 500 companies could do 5 years ago are possible, and even affordable, for small businesses, artists, and hobbyists. I've been trying out various solutions for the past few years, and recently decided to start a business based on the tools I'd used that worked well for me, were cost-effective, and which I could manage to sell cheaper than anyone else. So I'm offering several products through my online storefront at http://www.computersculpture.com : Rhino 3d, a powerful NURBS-based modeler for the Windows platform, which is capable of importing 3d scans, supports inexpensive 3d digitizing arms, is accurate and easy to use, and is also one of the least expensive 3d modeling programs available (especially at my discount price.) Once one makes a model in Rhino, it is exported to another program called DeskProto, which automatically writes a toolpath based on its geometry, which in turn is fed into the MAXNC milling machine, which turns it into an actual part. For people looking for a heavier-duty machine, I've recently added the CNC Junior, a mill-drill converted to work on g-code, to my discount offerings. So far, all I've got is a MAXNC-10 for output myself, but I've got one of the larger and more powerful MAXNC-15 machines on order- it should arrive in a week or so. I've also got an older 1hp Bridgeport mill with a DRO and power feed on one axis, but I've talked myself out of trying to convert it to CNC, (in spite of Jon Elson's encouragement to the contrary. ) While I'm very interested in CAD, CAM, and the various strategies used to produce parts from computer files, my technical knowledge on these subjects is not very deep- I'm hoping to use this list as one way of making up for my deficiencies on that score. If anybody has questions about any of the products I represent online, if I don't know the answer myself I will make every effort to find it out.] Andrew Werby Andrew Werby - United Artworks Sculpture, Jewelry, and Other Art Stuff http://unitedartworks.com

Take a look at these pages . . . Charles Edward Haas wrote:

More CAM . . . Richegge@... wrote: