[How do I?] I need help setting up new machine

I am a welder/fabricator and have recently purchased a CNC Bridgeport mill and a conventional Baileigh lathe. I dont have much lathe experience and ZERO CNC experience. I need help setting up both machines. Mostly just tooling for the lathe and some pointers on running it. For the mill I need someone that can show me how to program and run it. as well as what software I might need. I have been told its about as easy as it gets as far as a CNC mill goes. I would imagine it wont take a lot of time but will pay your hourly rate or negotiate a flat rate for the task. I can work with any scheduled and meet at my shop in Santa Ana, CA any time or day. I need these machines running ASAP so any help or even pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Man you got some nice machines there I'm not 100% sure but I believe that Bridgeport is a bit outdated & doesn't want to communicate with newer programs. :headscratch:
But should be fine running on it's own software. I'd still love to have it though. Good luck.

the controller is Artisan CNC by Ah-ha design group. if that helps.... I can run a old program that is still in the machine from the last owner but need to know how to input my own. I am just pushing buttons at this point...:nuts: Someone PLEASE help!!!

Although I don't like the format Yahoo groups has a forum of Ah-ha design group that could get you started.

Ill check it out. Thanks Charley!

anyone else that has tips or is familiar with this please help a brother out.

Josh,
Sounds like you are trying to make money from these machines? You ask about tooling for the lathe. What is it you want/need to be able to do, plain turning, close to the chuck or longer work, facing, screw cutting, knurling, drilling, boring, type/s of material?.....All different tools, the list goes on. Search "How to run a lathe" by South Bend, thats a nice intro to turning basics. You really need to start with easy stuff, practice, and progress from there. You cant just jump on a lathe and start boring and single point threading without basic skills and knowledge, (even though boring and threading arent what I would consider "advanced skills")
1 off jobs on the mill will use the CNC component pretty much only for cutting to the dimensions required and programming is not neccessary, just use it as a DRO, whereas if you are doing multiple repeat work then the CNC will make things much quicker.

There are some pretty knowledgable folks here, and we will help out as much as possible but we will need some more info on where you are headed.

Cheers Phil

If I were in front of it I could help you out with it on basic stuff but since you have ZERO CNC skills it might be difficult on here.

But me & others might be able to help you better if you scroll through the screens and take a picture of each then we can tell you the functions on those screens.

From the picture of the screen you show now there is a glare that blocks some of the options on top, you need to eliminate that. You can use the mill and the screen as a DRO so you can do some chip making in the meantime

Thanks for the responses guys. I will put more photos on here ASAP. The mill will be used primarily for very simple slots and holes. I would like to be able to program some of the slots and hole patterns that we use alot so I dont have to stand behind our conventional bridgeport turning wheels when I could be getting other things done. As for the lathe it will be mostly small parts. turning down OD and some threading. Making quick release pins and hinges. I will include pictures of some of the parts we will need to make. Thanks again guys.

Here are more pics of the CNC mill control and parts we need to make with the mill and lathe