Contents. EMC2 Software Settings.
![Emco Pc Mill 50 Manual Emco Pc Mill 50 Manual](http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af281/kmckenn_bucket/EMCO%20Mill-Lathe/EMCOPCMill-Lathe55.jpg)
Use the Parallel port at 0xE800 Motor Picture of the motor faceplate: Steve Alaniz's Operation Guide. There is an on/off switch for the unit. A knob to turn on the spindle motor and two big emergency stop buttons on the front and side in case something goes horribly wrong. I (Steve!) added an Arduino to monitor the spindle EStop buttons and to control the air. Turning the spindle on will enable the air flow and EStop will kill both the spindle and air.
You will also be prompted to turn the spindle all the way off if you happen to leave it on. The display will give an estimated spindle speed.
EMCO makes four systems—the PC Mill 50 and 100 and the PC Turn 50 and 120. The PC Turn 50 is $12,900, and the PC MILL 50 $15,900. The PC Turn 120 and PC MILL 100 are each $29,900. Cost is kept down by reducing power and speed. Instead of machining difficult materials, students learn how to make parts in aluminum at a slower rate of speed.
It is derived from the speed control potentiometer and should actually be quite accurate. The best materials to cut are wood, plastic and Aluminum However it CAN cut steel with the correct settings and you may want to use a liquid coolant for steel instead of air just to be sure. This is a small mill with a low spindle speed of about 2000 RPM max. I've actually limited the top speed having read that there is a point where speed trades off for the motor power so you'd have a spindle moving very fast but easy to jam. Most small mills have a top speed of about 2200 RPM. I know there are people familiar with mills and I would like to hear from them what cut speed and cut depth would be appropriate for a 2200 RPM spindle speed. Operation The steps for operation are:.
Power up the computer. Launch the Linux CNC program. Load your G-Code file. Power on the Emco. Toggle Machine Power F2 or the orange icon circle with a vertical bar. Home all (Home finds the home switch and does a fine adjustment. The switches may be noisy and I think Debounce may need to be tweaked.
If home fails just retry for now). Set the X Y and Z axis and set the 0 points if you need to by selecting an axis and using Touch Off to zero that axis.
Hit run and keep your fingers crossed.
First, just checking to see if this is an acceptable machine to discuss, if not feel free to close this mods. It is not a taig or sherline, but not a haas either. One popped up locally to me for sale and I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with them? It has no software or computer, is it a machine I can run off Linux cnc or Mach 3?
I like that it has some weight to it (500 lbs), and the travels are just big enough for the parts I am looking to make. Tool holders are not included, neither is the spindle draw bar? Anyone know what he could possibly mean by this?
'The part that the tool holder screws into'. Is this just like the drawbar for my Gorton, something I could make on the lathe?
Also, would this machine be difficult to get set up? I have some knowledge, but not enough to make a PC Card or cable for the machine. Thanks for your help in advance Abraham. Without the computer, fanuc or other control panel and RS card($$$$) its a lump of iron and will need a retrofit to work. These are well made bt30 taper/er25 collet machines and yes you can machine steel as well.feeds,speeds and good cutters.They have the smaller un-wipered rolled ball screws as compared to the production versions like the F1P or VMC series machines which have larger precision ground and wipered screws but the iron is about the same. They will make as good a part as a larger machine.just no where near as fast. A friend has one and loves it.
Hello, I would recommend looking at the following This is a pretty thorough discussion of the PC Mill 50. Accoring to discussion I had in the past with Emco USA, the only difference between the PC Mill 50 and the newer PC Mill 55 was the interface card/circuitry used to connect the mill to the pc. Even if teh mill does not come with software, it was originally sold with a software license adn by contacting Emco USA with the serial number you should be able to get a copy of the latest version. You might also call Emco and see if the 55 needs a proprietary interface card of if any RS-422 card will work. The mill can be updated to take an ethernet card from from Emco to cure some of this and with updated Emco software can then be used without conversion. Might be worth looking into. I will say tooling up a PC Mill 50/55 without any tool holders gets expensive at around $100 a pop from Maritool.
This machine does not use a drawbar. There should be a lever on the left side of teh spindle and as long as you can feel strong spring tension on the lever the guts of the retention system is there. To directly answer some of your questions, no you cannot run this directly off of linux or Mach 3 without modification. I believe, but have not tried, that there is a simple conversion possible that would allow that with the original stepper driver boards and removal fo the controller card but that experimentation would be up to you. (although I think this may have been documented in home shop machinest or digital machinest if I recall correctly) With all that would be needed I would not pay too much for this system as is although I have not seen it.
Good luck and read the aforementioned thread. On that forum I am user lanb OK the link did not work try a google search for: emco pc mill 50 & similar lanb. Hi All, Thanks for your comments. As for the 'drawbar' he was talking about, that is what he has told me, so I am just relaying the information that I know (Which admittedly is not that much). Because its fair, here is the link to the machine in question. He does have a picture of the spindle, anyone familiar with these understand what could be missing? Emco PC Mill 55 CNC Milling Machine eBay (I would not be opposed to a retrofit, but I dont want to be 2k deep in this machine before it gets going (I could get a dyna or similar for that I am sure of).
If I had more time (I am at college right now with 4 exams taken this week, and 3 more coming up) I would love to contact emco, but I am barely getting the time to type this message:). What do you all think, worth putting 1k bid, seeing where it goes and if I 'win' the auction? Toolholders I would scrounge up as money came up, but wouldn't need more than 2 or 3 to start. Every part I currently have in mind fits in about a 5x5x5 cube, and is 6061. Thanks for the help Abraham. Abraham, from looking at the pictures the spindle looks to be all there and the machine looks to be in decent shape. The 'drawbar' he says is missing does not exist.
I think he sees the large bore in the bottom o fthe spindle and is referring to that. To insert a tool holder you pull on the handle on the left side of the spindle and insert a CAT-30 or BT-30 tool holder with an pull stud modelled after the Emco pull stud in to the hole and release the handle to lock it into place. Or one can acquire Emco tool holders at about 3x the cost. You could do a lot of work with only one ER-20 or 25 tool holder and a set of collets it would be a lot slower and more cumbersome but doable if you are on a budget. The only thing that would keep me from bidding on this machine is the lack of an interface card. You might drop an email to 'Manus Educational Machinery' at manus.biz to see if he has a PC Mill 55 IF card and see what the price is.
These cards are real hard to come by for the 50 and I assume the 55 as well but they can be found with patience. I acquired one and later got a second as a back up but it is not for sale:). My understanding is that a conversion to modern steppers and mach 3 et al is less than a grand and there are other methods of conversion that retain most of the electronics. For a grand it is probably a good deal I would expect to see it go for $1200 to $1500 but I have not been watching prices for a few years. Should you bid or not? That is up to you I do not know your electrical or mechanical abilities, desire to take on some risk or basically anything about you so I will not advise.
These are very solid reliable and accurate machines capable of light duty production and prototyping. They are not the fastest, and may actually be the slowest machines in their class but are great for turning chunks of aluminum into your ideas. Good luck and when you get some time look over the thread I sent earlier. It will give you a lot of information.
Also, if you pm me, I can send you a PC Mill 55 manual from Emco. Are some machines not allowed??? Not kidding please fill me in here.
You clearly didn't read the forum posting guidelines when you signed up. No discussion of hobby or home shop grade machines. There are other forums for that.
Discussion of harbor freight lathes or chinese mill/drills will get locked with a quickness. RE: The Emco: We use one as our trainer in class (only been in programming class for the last few weeks), so my experience is not vast. It seems well made, works just like every other fanuc I've run so far, and I don't have anything bad to say about it. That said, we only use ours for cutting MDF in class, no idea how well it'd hold up to actual metalcutting. Hi all, Thanks for all the help! I am seriously considering this machine, but my only caveat is actually running the machine. I am not an electrician (I am studying ME in college) and somewhat doubt my ability to make the conversion to Mach3/Linux CNC.
If anyone on here knows of a PC board for sale, please post up a link. I do not even know where on the machine it would go, as he has two pictures of the electrical cabinet, and it doesnt look like anything is missing, possibly it would go in the PC itself? Thinking out loud, that actually makes more sense. Call Emco.You will be astounded by their service and support of their old machines.Not.
Ask how much a part is, then see if in stock in States or in Austria. But first try to get someone on the phone.
I am going to make the guess that you are being sarcastic, and it is impossible to get parts for the machines, and impossible to get in contact with customer service? Thanks again for the help guys Abraham.
Hi all, Thanks for all the help! I am seriously considering this machine, but my only caveat is actually running the machine. I am not an electrician (I am studying ME in college) and somewhat doubt my ability to make the conversion to Mach3/Linux CNC.
If anyone on here knows of a PC board for sale, please post up a link. I do not even know where on the machine it would go, as he has two pictures of the electrical cabinet, and it doesnt look like anything is missing, possibly it would go in the PC itself? Thinking out loud, that actually makes more sense. I am going to make the guess that you are being sarcastic, and it is impossible to get parts for the machines, and impossible to get in contact with customer service?
Thanks again for the help guys Abraham he's not being sarcastic.their machines are great, however their customer service is.well.to be nice.lacking of the very basic concepts of retail customer satisfaction and repeat business longevity.Sad really.they make very nice stuff. If its not current production forget about parts, service or even hello. Abraham, you are correct when you were assuming the interface card goes inot the PC. It is then connected to teh mill via a cable. The other fun part is you need an old PC nothing new will do. As to converting to mach 3, I have not done this myself but I understand it is pretty straight forward.
There is not intricate electrical design needed just some mechanical work and electrical wiring and soldering. As a mechanical engineering student you should be able to figure it out and overcome any bumps in the rod get some help from a fellow electrical engineering student. I just checked the auctionand see I was $300 low on my top end guess on selling price so I am guessing you did nnot get this one. I got my Mill 50 for $1200 by being patient which gives you time to locate the card you will need they do come up. You might look at some of the europeann ebay sites as well like Great Britain.
These are good mills and have lots of potential you will need patience to get everything and to get it running. He's not being sarcastic.their machines are great, however their customer service is.well.to be nice.lacking of the very basic concepts of retail customer satisfaction and repeat business longevity.Sad really.they make very nice stuff. If its not current production forget about parts, service or even hello. Emco makes an absolutely fantastic machine!
Not talking hobby stuff, but full blown CNC Turning Centers. The people that work in Ohio are fabulous.they really try very hard and some are extremely knowledgeable on the older machines and really go all out for you. That said, they seem highly understaffed and they 'SunSet' the earlier stuff.so parts are difficult to get when possible and worse.the people who knew the machines inside and out leave.the newer people haven't a clue.they will read the manual which is a useless piece of bird dropping material. Parts.figure what you think would be ridiculously high.then at least double it and hope it is in stock.some place. I love my machine.just hate calling on a Monday morning when machine is down, then waiting till Thursday or Friday for a return call from a technician to give you a return call.
They tried a pay service for tech support.I didn't mind paying.but still didn't like waiting days. Hopefully they turned things around.they have great machines and some real nice helpful people that really try. Just not always enough.