It's not unheard of for CNC machine vendors to extort several thousands of dollars to enable a function that's already built into a machine, by simply changing a few stored numbers.

But it sounds like you're proposing to add CNC to a completely manual machine, for which the quoted price could be quite reasonable.  I guarantee that homebrewing a CNC conversion will cost you more than ten grand.

We could probably be more helpful if you would reveal what an Optical Trace Cutting Machine does, and why you didn't buy the CNC version in the first place.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

Hi, thanks for the reply. A tracing system automatically controls the motion of a cutting tool by following a line or silhouette pattern and is intended for use on small cutting machines.

It also mentions that the CNC interface is available as an option.

I talked to a rep at the company and he basically said, 'the cost including the CNC and the software, if we were do do it is around the $10,000.00 dollar range. This price includes the nesting software which is valued at 5k. Also in this price is an addition of encoders onto your motors with cables. Connecting to your PC would be you responsibilty, any IT person or someone familiar with PC's should have no problem doing this. We can also make up the serial communication cable which would be extra, if necessary.'

I'm not too sure why my employers didn't get it in the first place, may have been the extra cost, may have been that they didn't have anyone technically sound with pc's at the time, I'm not too sure.

Thanks again.

I suggest you snag an older laptop to act as 'the' PC for that machine, because new computers may not have serial ports, and primitive software (like typical nesting programs) may have trouble communicating with USB serial ports.

It's probably worth buying the serial cable from them, just so you can hold them responsible for getting the entire system up and running before you accept it.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

you can find further information on making it cnc on here;
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/