Now my bias against steppers is based on bitter experience. When the
bandit control died on my knee mill, I had to go to steppers as no
cheap PC control using servos existed at that time.

When was this? EMC and Mach3 have both been around for quite a while.


My beloved Bandit, that I had upgraded to 300K memory died in early
97. The machine was down for a whole year before I got it running with
steppers and a DOS control called AHHA. Good control for its time and
I learned a lot about refitting machines. I bought a failed Camsoft
refit of a Mazak M4 lathe in 2000 and was totally in over my head
figuring out what was done wrong so I put the servos back on the
Excello to learn Camsoft. Don't remember the exact time anymore, must
have been about March 2001 when it finally ran with servos again. I
got the M4 running in 2003 and upgraded in 2004. 2005 and 2006 and
into 2007 were spent on a hardinge CHNC that started as a pile o'
parts. 2008 I did another fella's knee mill. 2009 I started a plasma
cutter and ran into tons of other stuff and didn't finish. This
year,the kid bought a new place and asked me to get his Matsuura
running.

The times aren't perfect, but its a general summary of'my refit hobby.
The hobby is active maybe two months a year,I still have to work for a
living. And I have to fish with most of my free time. You got to have
your priorities.

Karl