Colin Wrote: Hi Michael & Pete,

Both of those CAM programs appear to only be suitable for 3 axis milling.

Hi Colin Welcome aboard! - Thought I would be able to get setup with essentially what I had accumulated over time. In the meantime I recieved a lot of excellent input from those that much more knowledgeable in this area. Let's face it in the beginning I was about half right with a meager arsenal of equipment and no CAD/CAM and OS to run them.

Along came Michael and I once again got a Moment of Inspiration. I really didn't want to purchase another Windows XP OS. May not have had to but recieved the New XP today. I downloaded Mike's Beta MoI to CD. Need to build CAD PC to have 2 HDD's, if I can do it, Windows XP HD & Linux XP HD with the upgraded video card.

What would take You & Michael that are experts in this area, maybe 15 minutes to put together a PC. Wil take this senior senile citizen at least another 2 wks of trial & error attempts and numerous questions to the Forums to complete :).

One of the first things you'll need to establish is does your mill have 3 axis only or does it have a 4 axis(rotary)
If it has the 4 axis then you'll need a CAM program that can create cutting files accordingly. Unfortunately the 4 axis CAM programs are much more costly! In this case for a 4 axis version you're looking at $4000.00
http://www.mecsoft.com/Mec/Store/store.shtml

I already know that Pete wants to make jewellery items with his mill, so a 4 axis CAM program is really the only one that will allow you to make any ring designs properly.

One thing I have to keep in mind that at some point, you're right, I'll have to remember that I'll need a 4 axis CAM program and $$$$. In the meantime those links that Michael posted are looking better all the time.

Thanks for your help & taking the time to post. Looking forward to reading more of the posts concerning MoI,& hopefully will be able to get up an running before next year.

Kindest Regards,
Pete