Hi Saltfever
I acquired the software only and built a PC to run the machine.

I became very disappointed with Grbl and the forum members lack of imagination to keep pushing the project. When they moved from the atmega 8 bit processors to the 32 bit ones they had a huge untapped potential of adding the features machine builders were looking for. don’t get me wrong, Sonny Juan and the other developers did a fantastic job of building a fully functional machine controller around an 8 bit processor. The development then stalled as the momentum was then passed to other members to create and expand, it is they who let the project come to a dead end in my opinion. The open source sharing revolution looks like its beginning to peak, open source designers and developers are beginning to realise the financial potential of their new found ideas. There are now a couple of the grbl forum members who are building a commercial units with locked software which goes against the spirit of open source. The hardware to build an open source 32 bit Grbl controller has taken over six years to appear and still does not look much like happening.
The PC is the most logical progression; even the Pro machines have cottoned on. Gone are the days of a dedicated plc alone running the machine, the new windows desktop styled controllers are all the rage now.

The use of operating systems other than Microsoft Windows makes a lot of sense, im so pleased that they do not use Windows 10, if this is their attempt at the best OS ever they are in deep doo doo. File explorer is garbage, the whole machine is slowed and the memory is maxed out. Like the other budding engineers on this site im screaming at the PC for Microsoft to sort its crap out, windows 95 was a far superior product to this junk.
Linux is the obvious choice. The beauty of it is if you can’t get to install on your chosen PC due to bios complications you simply put your hard drive in another machine that will create the drive and swap it back into the machine - Windows, not a cat in hells chance with that eufi thingy locking your drive to that pc.

Pathpilot (on linux os) is a brilliant choice so long as Tormachs openness continues. A bit like Fusion 360 we are all hooked now, how long until its free "loaned” licence comes to an end. I must applaud the commercial companies for opening up to help educate future machinists and engineers; smarter thinking is starting to turn the page on capitalism.

"Jasons cnc revolution" is continuing at pace, i just received a call this morning from a company called Chester Machine Tools in the UK who are attempting to source a second hand milling centre for me. The poor guy is having to pull hens teeth with both hands tied behind his back. I also spent a few hours last night looking for used machinery sales companies; it really gets my goat why not one of these companies displays prices, what’s the secret. When i want to buy, is it going to be 3k more than it would be to someone else?

Ive always been told and understand that in order to do business you have to gain someone’s trust - no prices gets them off to a bad start. I have a modest budget and would like the ability to compare what’s available and what i can get for the budget available, to not provide me such simple information as a machines price (which may or may not be negotiable) has taken away my decision making ability. I might spend 10k but I might spend 12k it depends on how shiny it looks and what features it has. Building a fourth axis is not beyond anyone’s ability on this site, however interfacing it to an old machine without its ability to run one is an issue. Having such a feature as standard on a machine makes it desirable even if the machine looks cosmetically like its been in a car wreck. Age wise, do you want a machine on its last legs with some mileage left in it ot one the cuts circles whilst it travels in straight lines (like my current diy build. lol).

The saga continues …..

For reference, this is an older post I wrote on HMT regarding Grbl as a cnc controller
Crash Course on GRBL public licence CNC control.