Have you tried to mill hard wood like cherry, maple, oak. I used these materials (woods) and acrylic. I had my students machine their cad drawings of machine parts - cog gears, cams cog gears that would be installed in Automata projects. Name plate desk plates in Cherry and Oak were a big hit for parents and teachers.

My school district is purchasing several CNC routers for the High School Technology Programs. I strongly suggested for the school system to purchase an Industrial Quality Mill and software that would have growth potential when the teachers want to expand rather than have a TOY that is useless for more sophisticated machining. I have Techno-Isel (stepper) Davinci 8"x10 and found it to be quality and using MasterCam V8 for the past 3 years and am still learning. The software and machine that looks to be purchased is Visual Mill Basic V5.0. with a Techno-Isel 14x18 (Servo)Davinci. Does anybody have any reaction to this software and machine? I feel personally MasterCam has so much more growth potential and educational support or am I being silly. AND then the forum! Or am I talking to the choir. Rich Musson, Technolgy Teacher for 39 years.

My school district is purchasing several CNC routers for the High School Technology Programs. I strongly sugested to purchase an Industrial Quality Mill and software that would have growth potential when the teachers want to expand rather than have a TOY that is useless for expansion. I have Techno-Isel (stepper) Davinci 8"x10 and found it to be quality and using MasterCam V8 for the past 3 years and am still learning. The software and machine that looks to be purchased is Visual Mill Basic V5.0. with a Techno-Isel 14x18 (Servo)Davinci. Does anybody have any reaction to this software and machine? I feel personally MasterCam has so much growth potential or am I being silly. AND the forum!

I have been using Quick part for the past 3 years using the Techno-Isel DaVini 8"x10" Router. I am using Quickpart version 7 and last year purchased the Quickpart 3D for V8. I believe the program can be used for either a mill or a router. I has been great for making Desk name plates and Signs. I use it with wood and plastic. This past year, I made award plaques for our Navy ROTC program and FFA. Students find it easy to program and post to the cnc machine. If you need any help please ask. It would be great to share ideas. Rich Gaithersburg High School- MD

MasterCam Support sent me another install CD. It worked fine. Support also thought I had received a bad copy. Their "Support" was Great! Rich

I just tried to install V9.1 and after it almost finished acording to installing bar it stopped and gave me a message "Please insert Disk 0 that contains the file data3.cab". I tried all the directories on the CD and it could not find the file. Any suggestions?

I completed a project last year to introduce the students to the mill and the computer with a Letter Block Project for the feeder elementary schools to the high school. During the year we made seven sets of alphabet blocks with extra vowels (AEIO&U). I cut-up 2x4's into 3.5" blocks and used an 1/8 inch flat end mill to make the cut. It takes alot of time but was a great community service project. The students learned to set-up the mill, clamp stock and run the file. An eight foot $1.69 2x4 makes an alphabet set -give or take mistakes.