WELsoft was the brainchild of Peter Patient. He had been a Design and Technology teacher and, more recently, a Design and Technology Advisor to schools in Hertfordshire. He recognised that many schools had Emco lathes and mills which had been bought in the 1980s but which were no longer used because of the absence of suitable software. It was his dream to be able to resurrect these machines which represented an unusable asset in schools.

Peter had the ideas for what needed to be done but lacked the software skills to be able to put his plans in place by himself. Peter had known David Hubbard for some time but it was only a chance conversation that led to Peter's realising that David might have just the skills that were needed and that he shared an interest in all things technical.

And so the collaboration began in 1998. The initial target was to get an Emco Compact 5PC working under computer control. The first thought was to use a parallel interface from the computer's printer port but after much experimentation it was decided that this road was not going to lead to a reliable solution and so the basic design changed to a microprocessor based controller fed from the serial port of the PC.
 

During this early development phase it became apparent that there was a need for a comparitively simple program that would enable NC code to be prepared on a PC and then downloaded to the Compact 5 CNC lathe or the F1 mill in order to drive the machine's native controller. As a result, WELedit was released in mid 1999.
 

Development and testing of WELturn continued and in March it went live. Now those Emco Compact 5 PC and Compact 5 CNC lathes that had been dormant for years could be brought back into service. At last part of Peter's dream had become a reality.
 

Peter was not satisfied with providing new systems for the lathes. Enquiries increased about the F1 Mill and it was apparent that we should design a system for the mill by building on WELturn for the Compact 5 CNC.
 

WELmill for the Emco F1 Mill (and Woodworker) was released in mid 2002 with sales in the UK followed by the USA, Canada and Mexico.
 

Peter had recognised that schools in the UK were using a CAD package for 2D drawings that could be converted to 2.5D milling control files by taking the HPGL output from the package and then adding tool patch information. Thus WELplot was released this year.
 

Peter had not been well for some time. He was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a type of leukaemia that normally has a good prognosis as it can be managed medically. Sadly, Peter's lymphoma went out of control at Christmas 2003 and progressively attacked his brain. He died on 26th February 2004, with his family around him, at the Isobel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City where he had received excellent care. He is buried in the churchyard at Westmill, Hertfordshire.
 

WELsoft continues as a tribute to Peter, with WELedit, WELturn (5PC and 5CNC), WELmill and WELplot available for prompt dispatch and with support provided via email.