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i have an old Emco Mill of similar or maybe older vintage. the only interface capability it had was a serial port. here is a pretty good article of the history of the Compact 5 and it describes machines that are very similar to my mill. there is no mention of a parallel port.

i am posting all the boring details below to show what i did with an old Emco that might be useful for someone else considering the use of one. i hope that the machine i "made" will be reliable and maintainable. if not i will probably buy a new machine and use the code, fixtures and experience with that machine.

there was something mentioned in this thread about a modification to the lathe wiring? but i have no idea what that might be. I doubt it could provide a parallel port.

my mill had serious electronic problems. every PC board was still available but at very high costs. i figured it i did get it to work in the original configuration there would be a series of expensive repairs over time. in addition the gcode that my machine would support in the original configuration was not very good.

the mill is very well made but has a very limited XY travel of something like 5 by 7 inches. the Z is much greater because it was used to control a "quick change" tool holder which as been removed (and saved in case i ever want to use it) it has very powerful 5 phase stepper motors so i had to buy Vexta drivers to be able to use a PDMX breakout board and Mach3 (Mach2 initially)

after getting it to work and making a few parts every now and then, it sit for probably 5 years without use. just recently, i converted it to a dedicated machine for making small wooden parts of which i need to make thousands. after getting a bunch of advise from this forum and making a two button pendant for controlling the loading and running of alternate gcodes, i have finally made something useful of this machine.

most of the machine is pretty generic and can probably be maintained without getting expensive factory original parts. i have no idea what i will do if one of the steppers dies. hopefully something generic will fit. the spindle motor came close to burning up due to a stuck brush in the holder. i imagine that the motor would be $1000 or more as an original part. it is a very large permanent magnet brush type servomotor.

i should have stopped the machine as soon as i heard irregularity in the motor speed but i thought this was just jitter in? the motor driver. i was very lucky that there was only minor damage to a brush holder and one melted wire. there are 4 brushes and i think that when one of them became stuck it put the full load of the motor on one brush set causing the lead to melt. i got very similar replacement brushes from Eurton Electric who got them to me very fast.

the machine is now working very well and i intend to do a production run as soon as i determine the fastest safe cutting speeds. i'm sure that others on this forum had discovered (if they are milling hardwood parts) that there are tricks needed to produce good finishes that are different from what you would do with metal milling.

this is also the only milling machine i have at my winter home. used in manual mode (very slow jogging) it has been quite useful for making little aluminum parts needed for the fixtures of the dedicated part making machine.

?

Matt,
I can answer the first 2 questions.

Yes Mach3 will send outputs in demo mode the only limitation of demo mode is
the 500 lines of gcode.
Mach3 will run on laptops the main limitation is if you're using the
Parallel Port the voltage on some newer ones is only 3volts which wont drive
most PP controllers.
as far as the actual hook up to the Emco lathes I have no experience or
knowledge of the interface.
Chuck Smalfus

----- Original Message -----
From: "mattcrowe20@... [mach1mach2cnc]"

To:
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 4:34 PM
Subject: [mach1mach2cnc] Using mach 3 Demo mode

> Hello there! This is my first post regarding Mach 3 and its capabilities,
> so please bear with me. I am a high school Metal Shop teacher trying to
> get some CNC going for the class.
>
>
> I have a few EMCO compact 5 pc lathes I am trying to get running. They
> have not run since the late 90's but do turn on and the spindle turns with
> the key and switch. I have modified the U3 board by removing the chip with
> the octal latch and jumped the wires as per the instructions in the
> "digital machinist, 2007" write up. I have the lathe hooked up to a 25 pin
> serial port connector to a USB connector, and into a fairly new IBM
> thinkpad laptop running window XP.
>
>
> I downloaded mach 3 in the demo mode to see if i could get something to
> happen, before I spring for the full version of Mach3.
>
>
> My first question: Will the "demo" mode actually move the stepper motors
> if connected correctly?
>
>
> Second question: Will Mach 3 run off a laptop? I have seen conflicting
> information regarding this...
>
>
> third question: Is the serial cable connector going from the lathe to the
> computer something special? I just bought one for a printer to usb so I
> can connect it to my laptop computer. I'm not 100% sure its the right one,
> hence nothing happening with the lathe.
>
>
> It would be a big help getting started if I can get these 3 things figured
> out. Then i can start configuring mach 3 and see if there is any movement.
>
>
> Right now I have mach 3 running in demo mode, but it doesn't have any
> affect on the lathe. I have all the settings set as the article in the
> digital machinist says.
>
>
> So? what should I do?
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
> Matt.
>
>
>

--

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