The Morris Dovey entity posted thusly:

Ok, then take my approach - download the controller interface spec and
write the software before you commit the funds. I found hardware
conversion kits at http://www.stirlingsteele.com/, downloaded the I/F
specs and wrote a driver skeleton and some simplistic software unit
test code to see how difficult it might be - and it wasn't! I wrote
the code on a Linux system using nedit and gcc; but it works equally
well under MSDOS using Borland TurboC 3.0 (a blatent plug for writing
ISO/IEC-9899 compliant C code). Go ahead and give it a shot - and
e-mail me if you get stuck. I could send you the code now; but then
you'd lose the brag of having done it all yourself. :-)

Sounds like a plan.

It was HERE! :-)

Found it. Actually, as soon as you mentioned the drawer slides, I
realized I had independently found Martin's site a few weeks ago, and
filed it under "stuff to look at".

The gentleman's name is Martin de Roode and his website is at
http://engraving.majosoft.com/html/w...raving_mac.HTM

That's quite a nice machine.

| $1K sounds like my kind of price. For a few years, I made vinyl
| signs, and kept looking at my vinyl cutter, thinking "I could make
| a CNC router", but never did try. I even bought a video from a
| fellow who had made a CNC table using (of all things), alternators
| as stepper motors. Misplaced both the video and his name/email
| address years ago, though.

My kind of person! Martin used drawer slides as linear bearings -
something that'd never have occurred to me, although it seemed obvious
after seeing his machine. Alternators - hmmm...

Yes, I wish I could remember the fellow's name. He did some mods to
the alternators, if I remember correctly, though it seemed like it was
minimal.

|| Best of all, there's a _lot_ of free help available. The ShopBot
|| and CNCZone forums (both of which welcome visitors) have been of
|| considerable help to me.
http://www.talkshopbot.com
http://www.cnczone.com

Thanks for the pointers. I'll definitely be looking at them.

Larry