Hi,I recently got a Schaublin 125 CNC and I have a dilemma that I wanted to get some opinions on.
The machine was previously retrofitted with Mach3, and it basically works, with a few small caveats. But the wiring is a mess, and I don’t have any schematics or documentation at all.
I previously retrofitted a Hermle 1200UWF to LinuxCNC and really liked the experience. From my first contact with Mach3, I can’t say the same about it.Right now I’m thinking it would be very easy for me to just clean it up a bit, fix a few small issues, and use it as-is. But with wiring like this, it feels like I’m just waiting for the first small problem, and then I’ll be standing there rewiring everything because I can’t find anything in that undocumented mess.
I don’t want to speak badly about the previous owner — if someone other than me had to work on my mill, they wouldn’t fare much better either. But still, this has me thinking about rewiring the whole machine from the start so I don’t run into the same headaches later on.I’m a hobbyist, so it’s not financially important for me to get the machine running as quickly as possible. And if I’m rewiring it anyway, I would probably switch it over to LinuxCNC as well.
So my question to all of you is: am I insane, or is this actually reasonable? I have a working machine, and I’m considering taking it completely apart and turning it into a months-long, or even year-long, project.
Another reason I would prefer LinuxCNC is this forum. I haven’t posted much here in the past, but all of you were essential in getting my mill up and running. The fact that I was able to solve almost all of my problems just by reading here says a lot in my book. Maybe that’s true for Mach3 as well, but I somewhat doubt it.It may be that asking here is like asking a lawyer whether you need a lawyer, but still…
I have a number of pictures of the machine and the wiring, and a video I made, so you can get a better idea of what I’m working with.
Any suggestions on how you would handle this would be very welcome.