Want to make a network to serial comm device for old CNC

I service plasma and oxy/fuel cutting machines and a number of old machines are still working. They use a serial protocol to download from a computer in the office. Serial protocols are fine when they work, but after a while it gets to be a real pain to replace long cables strung through the filthiest parts of a weld shop.

Would it be practical to use an Arduino and a wireless shield to make a dedicated file transfer node? There is a routine in the CNC to ask the user for a file number (no alpha keys on the cnc) and then have the arduino go to the network and bring the NC code file down in chunks and transfer to the CNC?

What buffer size does the wireless chip on board?

I have written some client server apps in Visual Basic 6 so I think I could handle that side of the problem. 1 program just waiting for a request for a cnc file, and then send it out in chunks to be then transferred to the cnc.

Thanks -
Pete

Serial protocols are fine when they work, but after a while it gets to be a real pain to replace long cables strung through the filthiest parts of a weld shop.

You might use xbees or similar to make the serial connection. If the shop has high frequency welding equipment, you might get RF interference going wireless. Just how often do you have to replace the existing serial cables?