Thread: CNC back to manual control???

mobjack68,
Should not be hard to find modules that will drive the steppers for you, but what do you want to use to control the modules. From your post, I envisage you manually operating a couple of wheels that encode your movements and past them to the stepper controllers as input. If that is the case, why would you want to?

That sort of scenario would give you the worst of both worlds, a manual control machine with no feedback or feel as how the job is going.

CNC doesn't need a lot of 'feel' but normally has limit switches, current sensing etc build in to ensure that the movements stay within safe bounds. It's beauty is that once a program for a part is developed and debugged, it can be used for ever to make the part. As such it does not need a lot of feedback, the only real variables in the equation is tool wear and resetting.

With a wheel command stepper system, you would loose all physical feedback, without having the ability to have the machine repeat a programmed and known viable pattern of movements to machine the required part. A lot of the skill of a conventional machinist is in interpreting the physical feedback or 'feel' to optimise feeds and cuts etc for efficiently producing the part.

It might be better to consider a retrofit with modern electronics similar to those used in homemade or kit equipment so that the machine has CNC capabilities and a modern computer/machine interface for development of parts.

I'm sure some of the guys here could chip in with some info in that direction.