I have the same mill. It is really a great little machine.
If you have a computer with a serial port than I would recommend the stepper controller that zentoolworks sells. Thereās a ton of support for it and it seems to have more on board adjustment than the controller you were looking at.
As for software, you should check out the wiki page on zentoolworks.com . There youāll find a bunch of suggestions for what you can use for free or for very little money.
Iām not sure what material youāre planning on machining but here is a suggestion: alumilite.com/ProdDetail.cfm?Category=Casting%20Resins&Name=Alumilite%20Regular. This stuff is great. Itās strong, not too heavy and it machines like a dream. It chips off clean without melting at any spindle speed and cut rate. Things like pvc, abs, or lexan can be kind of hard to do because the plastic will build up on the bit.
It can do aluminum pretty well too but very slowly.
The Dremel does not have the side loading capability for use in a CNC machine. Iām not speculating, but relaying info gained from trying it personally. And I was only trying to cut 3mm foam PVC. I donāt know what else would work though. Of course I was using it for production. You may be able to make something useful using a Dremel but itās going to be painfully slow.
As routing software i can recommend EMC linuxcnc.org/
I use it since many years and i am very happy with it. You can use cheap clock/direction amplifiers and it installs a complete ubuntu linux environment on your routing pc.
I bought a Wong-Fu 31 mill (Hong-Kong, not Mainland China).
Not sure about your 8" brake. Expensive, not very wide, and it uses a V-shaped jaw along with a grooved anvil to make bends. Mine is a simple hinge-type. so they are quite different. Iād have to see it. 20ga steel is pretty light.
, Iām up for the challenge.
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