I think most machinist want a cnc but for good reason and myth they are scared

[markknx]

Sorry I didn't get right back e-mail shut down again I think, yesterday it worked great...
Yes you can have motors with duel shafts but a pendent makes it easier. To use the cranks you would have to turn the power off to the motors and then you would loose the ability to use the screen as a dro.
Maybe if I have time I'll make a video showing something being made using the mill without a drawing, just using lines and circles and the pendent. I'll see if the next thing I make is interesting enough to video. you don't have to know everything about cad and cam to start using the machine.
Steve

I was just watching a tormach video and they had what looked like a round mouse the operator was running his finger around it as if cranking with his finger. I am guessing he just chose an axis and cranked. A simple push button penant would also work. The only reason I asked about a means of manual operation is some things are easier/quicker to just do by hand. Like if you are just cleaning something up and you want to takeas little off as possible. it would be kind of a pain to program a part just to do this then have to run it 3 times. So I really think a penant would be just the same as running with a power feed, and that is what I would be looking for thanks Mark

 

[bpratl]

I just added a wireless Pendant to my lathe and after a lot of finagling I got close to replicating manual control with .0001" per click of the MPG.
This makes it easy to take a few thousands off a part without programing. I only wish that the pendant had two MPG controls, one for X and the other for Z, instead of switching the rotary switch to X or Z. It is too easy to screw up a part when forgetting to switch axis.Test Like anything else it is just a matter of getting use to it. Between the mach3 wizards and the Pendant it is pretty close to having full manual control. I was lost and confused before adding the pendant. Bob

 

[dracozny]

most steppers don't have encoders but some of the newer ones now do.
my motors are braking when the power is on so turning them would not show up as motion on the screen.
steve

Servo systems use encoders. in some cases resolvers. alternatively some builders use linear encoders on each axis regardless of motor type.
I run Servos with rotary encoders, hence my earlier comment.

 

[dracozny]

I just added a wireless Pendant to my lathe and after a lot of finagling I got close to replicating manual control with .0001" per click of the MPG.
This makes it easy to take a few thousands off a part without programing. I only wish that the pendant had two MPG controls, one for X and the other for Z, instead of switching the rotary switch to X or Z. It is too easy to screw up a part when forgetting to switch axis.Test Like anything else it is just a matter of getting use to it. Between the mach3 wizards and the Pendant it is pretty close to having full manual control. I was lost and confused before adding the pendant. Bob

I just type in the coordinates and feed speed into the MDI, less spinning of dials needed, and I'm not writing a program to make one cut. it's really not a huge difference unless you are like me who has carpal tunnel among many other physical problems.