Absolute Beginner. Help!

Dear All,

I'm very new here.

I'm a big fan of This Old Tony and I watched his CNC build thinking that I'd love to do something like that - except that while I've got a workshop full of machine tools (I've been quietly collecting them, for my retirement) I have very limited skills. I doubted that I could make one that would have any sort of precision. I looked at the flimsy inexpensive ones on eBay. Not convinced they'd do what I want... and then up popped a second-hand industrial machine just 30 miles down the road and within my budget.

It's about a yard square, solidly made of steel, with what seem to me to be high quality, if aged, Japanese stepper motors and ball screws. The control box that came with it contains nothing more than a Gecko controller and a PSU. The computer that used to run the macine was dying but I got it to boot up long enough to determine that it was running Windows XP and Mach3 (so probably about 20 years old?).

I've cobbled together a PC from some spare bits that I had lying around and installed LinuxCNC. I've found a parallel port which looks like it will plug into my motherboard, so I believe that I can connect it all together and off I go.....

What should I do now? What should I read to get started? Is anything bad likely to happen from just experimenting without actually knowing what I'm doing? I don't want to wreck what looks like a good quality piece of kit, even if it isn't bang up-to-date. All help and advice will be gratefully received.

Thanks to both of you.Being somewhat impetuous, I put it all together and started tinkering while I waited for advice.... nothing's gone bang. Yet.

Yes: it's a G540. I've just been playing in the workshop and I found the preset for it. Using stepconf, I've been moving the x,y,z and A axes about, like a gleeful child with a new train set!

Sadly, the original computer is now dead and buried. I did keep the hard drive from it, but although I tried connecting it to another Intel motherboard (the original was an Intel dual core) I couldn't get it to boot. Now I think I need to verify the motors. Z and Y use Vexta PK268-02A but the x-axis appears to use an Italian motor HY 200 2232 - 160 88 looks like the model number. I shall have to do some Googling, to find data sheets.

I see a steep learning curve ahead......

Google suggests that they are both 1.8 degree (200 steps per revolution) motors, so stepconf's default values should be fine...