So a lot of you're probably been wondering what I've been up to, and although progress continues on TurboCNC v4.2; I've got a little bit of a surprise for you.

  AST Industria of Brazil has put together this robust port of TurboCNC to Windows (v5) which finally puts this program in the 21st century where it belongs.  DOS is a great platform, but it's gotten awfully "long in the tooth".

  Have a look at the v5 beta - It's limited to running 100 lines of code only and has a few bumps yet to be smoothed over, but it's pretty solid - adds a graphic display to the program viewer and lets you use the same computer and environment to run in as the one you do your CAD work in.

  Version 4.0 beta of ACE Converter is released.  Special thanks goes to Roy Abram, who programmed the changes.  Aside from many useful user interface improvements (including a "previewer"), the program also now processes the "type 42 bulge" entity.  

Go to the ACE page for details.

  Version 4.2 of TurboCNC is well on it's way toward release - target is Christmas '08.

  I've posted a video of the new TurboCNC version cutting a lathe part with four tools, including threading.  It's a little threaded spacer plug for a sonar manufacturer.

  Best new feature is the "Pentium Timer Mode", which increases the max pulse rate by a healthy factor of three.  The other heavy hitter is constant velocity cutting, not to mention bug-fixes. Believe me, there are a lot of bug-fixes.

  Check the constant velocity cornering calculator (21k, Excel 2000 spreadsheet) to find out what kind of performance you'll have in the new version.

  The TurboCNC User's manual is now online.  It's 5M with the pictures, 1M without so be patient if you're on dial-up.

  Starting out?  Look at the Beginner's guide to CNC conversion article.  This is the presentation I gave at NAMES in April 2003. For folks just getting their feet wet, it's an excellent reference.

  Ron Steele is selling these great sets of plans for a full CNC conversion of the Harbor Freight Mini-Mill.  For the extra busy individual (or maybe just lazy), he also sells a full kit that you can just assemble onto your machine.

  Have a peek at the TurboCNC gallery.  Some of the best parts made with the software.  I'm always looking for new submissions, so email one if you've made something you're proud of.  

Old versions of the program are in in the archive.

Using a 2D mill and manual Z axis with 3D software?  Check out the Zbreak utility to insert the correct stop codes into your g-code programs automatically.