Lots of Questions found a Paxton Patterson Mill & Lathe and am fairly new to cnc

[CNC_Penmaker]

Hello,

I recently found a Paxton Patterson CNC Mill And a P/p CNC lathe that i plan to use in my pen and knife making hobby's. And hope to get these machines up and running soon. They seem to be well cared for but I am missing the control cards/boxes for the units as well as specs and instructions since they came from a surplus sale. Does anyone own or have any experience or information on these units?

[CNC_Penmaker]

I was looking at my Paxton Patterson cnc mill this afternoon and had an idea. Since we do not have a driver card/box or motion control software as of yet and the unit does have a rs-232 serial port. That is located on the optidriver plus board could I hook up a game joystick to jog the machine?. And also if this could be done could i use the "fire' button on the joystick to plunge the spindle.

Any reasons this could not be done?

[vlmarshall]

After refitting a D&M CNC Sherline (similar to the Paxton-Patterson), I strongly believe that you would be most happy with, and get the most performance for your money out of, a Gecko G540 controller, and EMC running in Linux to drive it. Search through the posts by user "Crevice_Reamer", he frequently pastes a list of recommended steppers and drivers...I followed that list when shopping for parts to build a CNC router.

When I started with my mill I was going to use the existing electronics, but eventually refit it with a controller/power supply/stepper motor kit that was available... I wish the Gecko was available back then.

[CNC_Penmaker]

After refitting a D&M CNC Sherline (similar to the Paxton-Patterson), I strongly believe that you would be most happy with, and get the most performance for your money out of, a Gecko G540 controller, and EMC running in Linux to drive it. Search through the posts by user "Crevice_Reamer", he frequently pastes a list of recommended steppers and drivers...I followed that list when shopping for parts to build a CNC router.

When I started with my mill I was going to use the existing electronics, but eventually refit it with a controller/power supply/stepper motor kit that was available... I wish the Gecko was available back then.

I'll check for this guys posts and see what info i can gain. if i do switch to Gecko maybe the optidivers boards in both the mill and lathe will move to a new project

[CNC_Penmaker]

Both units are Paxton Patterson CNC Training Center by i think microkinetics.

i am wondering on where to start.. the units are around 10 years old "Lathe 1998" "Mill 1997" The Power Supply is a "Power 36" http://www.microkinetics.com/power_supplies/pwr36.htm And the motors are 83 oz in (microkinetics corp) and the current driver board's are "Optidriver Plus' 2 and 3 axis respectfully.

the lathe is a small model 4000 sherline it seems.. and the mill a 5400 sherline the metal enclosure as well as the shields and limitswitche's etc, they are all in great shape and the units seem to have saw very little use before being placed into storage and auction.

Anyways my question(s) are what would by my best choice for drivers and controls to make the best use of this equipment for my hobby's and should i keep the current motors? i have been suggested gecko g540's for drivers but would these allow me to use limit switches and other features maybe encoders? would i be able to somehow wire spindle speed control to a program without much trouble?

are the geckos the best choice for me or just the best choice for the money?

I hope to use this equipment for Pen and knife making and maybe some custom pistol grips. from materials such as acrylic,bone,horn,soft metals and a mild steel

can you suggest a "drivers/control/motors" and software setup ?

jog with game joystick a option?

i'm looking at a budget of around $875.00 for upgrades max less would be great


still kinda new to small scale cnc and the limitations of these small hobby/training machines and software can this be done within or below my budget. least expensive options please