I had the pleasure of attending their first introductory course in Mach3 / Visual Mill . It was conducted at Novakons office in Markham (ON) Dec 8-10.

For background I am a retired locksmith who purchased the basic machining equipment (lathe, mill ....) 3-4 years ago. After observing CNCzones boards for a couple of months, contacting various users etc. the NM-200 was my choice. Having no CNC experience, I decided that a course was in order. I'm thinking that was an understatement.

Rather than rehashing my thoughts I have included a copy of my critique of the course that I sent to Khai.

Khai,

Thought I'd drop you a critique about the course last week. First and foremost it clearly is mandatory for a newbie, otherwise when the machine arrives about all you could do is say how pretty it looks!

Ron is obviously a well qualified instructor as he was able to impart the basics in a clear and concise manner. (I'm however disappointed that three days instruction does not an expert make - right ). Seriously, we covered the basics of G-code & tackled designing my sample part in Visual Mill. Obviously a lot more training in CAD will be required.

Being the first course taught using Visual Mill and the different versions we had (demo) vs Ron's, differences in screen layouts and video cards proved a challenge. Also I was not able to save the design (demo version). Might I request that you email me the design ASAP for the plug holder so that I may test it and make any changes required.

Might I suggest that a final course hand out of the programs (Mach & Visual Mill), fully documented, would be most helpfull for we newbies. It would serve as an excellent source of reference for understanding the concepts and for further projects.

Once again thank you for this informative introduction. Looking forward to the next course (intermediate), yesterday would be good.

John

PS. I am expecting my NM-200 late this week or early next week, an early X-mas present.

Kudos to Novakon!