Mill-Route conversion to CNC Machine?

[Tony Bilello]

I recently bought a second hand Mill-Route Carving System as a play toy for sign making and reproducing from templates. This is a manual system. It moves from left to right, front to rear and a few inched up and down. I also dont know anything at all about CNC Machines but this new/old toy is fun and if computer driven, it could be a blast.
My questions are...can this system be converted to a CNC Machine without dedicating the rest of my unknowledgeable life building it?
Rough guess....what would this conversion cost? I already have a spare laptop - Windows XP, and several routers of various sizes.
Is this conversion relatively easy and is it cost effective? I will have enough money to buy a new CNC Shark or equivelant by the late fall. Roughly $3500 to spend.
If I did make this conversion, what kind of performance could I expect? Equivelant to $3K machine? A $5K machine?

Thanks in advance

Tony B

[Hirudin]

Originally Posted by Tony Bilello I recently bought a second hand Mill-Route Carving System ...

I tried searching Google for this phrase but I wasn't sure if anything I looked at was what you were talking about. Do you have any pictures or links for this machine?

[Tony Bilello]

Originally Posted by Hirudin I tried searching Google for this phrase but I wasn't sure if anything I looked at was what you were talking about. Do you have any pictures or links for this machine?

I am going to my shop tomorrow and tomorow night I will post either a photo or the brochure.

[Tony Bilello]

Here is what I learned so far. I can buy a complete CNC kit for around $1K from MoptionTek. It includes everything except the software - another $500 bucks. The kit contains the 3 stepper motors, control panel and all cables. So now I will be thinking if this whole thing will be worth the $1500 upgrade. I think it might be but I am also running this past another forum or two. The only thing stopping me from my usual impulse buying is the scarey economy. Looks like by late fall, I will buy the kit or possibly the CNC Shark Pro.
I have attached the brochure that came with my Mill-Route

[BobF]

Tony,
I am sure you could probably convert that to CNC, but for the same money you could build one of Joes designs and have a 2x4 or 4x4 cutting area and a solid design. Take a look at the joes2006 forum.

[FandZ]

I'd have to agree, you could do it but by the time your done you'd be ready to buy a much better machine. I doubt performance wise you,d be anywhere close to a 3 to 5k machine. Also looks like a good bit of customizing you'd have to do. If I were in your shoes I'd spend the summer getting comfortable with what ever cad system and cam system (don't let cam software catch you by surprise like it did me) you plan on useing.

k2 makes a really nice cnc machine.
http://www.k2cnc.com/shop/proddetail...2514-09&cat=26

Widgetmasters wide router is a thing of beauty.
http://www.widgitmaster.com/wide.htm

Then there are plenty of kits and options.

[BobF]

Look at Vectric's products for CAM. Great software and very easy to use. In some cases you don't even need a CAD tool.