The dialog about open source cnc hard/soft ware was very
informative. What feedback/information does the group have on
the Stewart Platform Hexapod / Parallel Kinematics based cnc
machines?

With the recent boosts in computer power/speed it appears these
are becoming practical for a number of applications, although an
automatic tool changer may be a challenge.

It appears these intrinsically have 6-axis capability, the three
traditional [XYZ] orthogonal axis and limited rotations [ABC]
about these.

This design appears to eliminate the need for large
castings/weldments, and the extremely high hand precision [i.e.
expensive] grinding/scraping typical of traditional way type cnc
machine tools. It also appears to make transportation and setup
much easier/cheaper because of their much lighter weight.

Is anyone using one of these in a production environment? How is
the programming compared to the traditional machines? Given the
amount/complexity of the actual position code I can see why a
pre-compiled tool path would be required.

I found a bunch of sites on google - a few that caught my eye
we

Retrofits:

http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/0900rt1.html

http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/0204rt1.html

New US manufacturer [ I would love to have one of these in my
garage, but 60k$US is a little steep ]

http://home.wi.rr.com/pathfind/

Uncle George