I am a middle school Tech Ed teacher, I have a Spectralight CNC mill and lathe that are on their last legs. I even used the machines when I was a student, now that I am a teacher at the same school it is time for some updating!
Currently the mill has stopped running. The spindle motor won't power on and the software is running on an old IBM computer. I am looking to upgrade on a tight budget. A new pc card will run me $1000 and there is no guarantee the machine will even work.
Any suggestions?
I see alot of posts on new stepper motors but not much on spindles.

Hi! I'm not 100%, but I thought the spectralight machines were essentially rebadged Sherline machines? www.sherline.com sells replacement parts for their machines. I think you can buy a new spindle and controller there. Stepper motors are fairly cheap from ebay (keling 280 oz-in motors are decent) and they also sell stepper motor drivers. Hobbycnc and xylotex drivers are also popular. I wouldn't pay $1000 for a new pc card.

Well, I am considering going with the Spectra CNC upgrade with the Linux software, though I am unsure how well the Linux software will work for Middle school students. Any suggestions?

I'm not familiar with the Spectra cnc upgrade. I'm guessing the Linux software would be EMC2 (www.linuxcnc.org) which you can download along with Ubuntu Linux. I've got an old PC with Linux and EMC2 which is running a Taig mill. It works great! Ubuntu Linux should be fine for your students. If they can use Windows they should be able to use Linux.

I guess I should have asked if you wanted a plug and play solution or are you wanting to upgrade the machine yourself or as a class project.

I am prepared to upgrade myself. Seems like a pretty common activity according to the people who post here, hopefully it should be somewhat rewarding... like a working machine!

I would shy away from a Unix/Linux system, you would be better off going with a windows based software.

Few students would know anything about Unix/Linux. Your cad and cam software that you will use is probably windows based also.

For a DIY take a look at Mach3. I upgraded a couple of machines for the High School here and used Mach3. Total cost less than $300 for both machines.

I second the Mach3/Windows route. A Hobby CNC or Zylotec controller or 3 Geckoe's and a power supply for under $300.00, 3 stepper motors for under $150.00 and a copy of Mach3 for $150.00 would get you a complete up to date system you would enjoy using and have great support for. Just my two cent's, I don't know beans about EMC though...

If your SpectraLight is truly a vintage from IBM computer days (late 80's?), then it has an interface card for IBM microchannel buss which IBM has long since abandoned. The cnc machine has gone through some major changes since those days. It will be tough to ressurrect the machine to what is currently sold by Intelitek.

If your machine has an ISA style controller card, then it may be worth upgrading to a new PCI card (new computers don't use ISA any more) and the new Windows control software. If it still works and the computer will run Windows, there probably isn't much reason to change the computer and interface card. If your computer is on the way out however, the new interface card should cost around $700 and the interface card with new Windows control software comes in a bundle that should cost roughly the $1,000 that you already know about.

The mechanics of the machine are Sherline but the control box, interface card, motors and software are all Intelitek. When it works, the package is awesome. You can also get curriculum for it. The Windows control software runs EIA-274 or Fanuc compatible code. It's also easy to output code from most major CAM packages to your machine.

Intelitek will sell you replacements for every part of the machine but, they will be pricey. If you don't mind investing the time, you can save some money if you can source the steppers or spindle motor yourself. To be honest, I have never seen a spindle motor go bad on a SpectraLight machine. The most common pieces that break are the plastic plugs on the stepper motors and the driver transistors in the black interface box when the plugs break on the stepper motors.

Have you checked the obvious things to get the spindle motor running? The most common mistakes are:

1. Check the fuse in the black interface box that says "spindle motor"
2. Check that the black power cord going from the spindle motor is plugged into the outlet on the interface box that is labeled "spindle motor" and not into one of the other outlets.
3. Check that the heavy gray cord from the black interface box is plugged into the interface card in the computer and not into the printer port on the computer.
4. On the older cnc machines, you can usually test the spindle motor by plugging the black cord from the spindle motor directly into a 110 volt wall outlet and it should immediately turn on and run.
5. Depending on the age of the cnc machine, it may have a "computer" mode on the spindle speed knob on the front of the machine. Try moving the spindle speed from the "computer" setting to something else and see if the motor turns on. This newer version of the machine will also have a default spindle speed setting in the control software that should be set to something over 500 rpm.


Good luck...

People find that the Mac operating system is easy to use and at the core of the Mac operating system is a UNIX system. I find that the Ubuntu Linux is pretty easy to use. It's all graphical/icon based just like Windows/Mac operating systems. I looked at Mach3 but I decided to use Linux/EMC2 on an old 1GHz PC to control my Taig mill. I do use the Vectric software suite on my Windows PC to generate gcode and then copy the code over onto a USB flash drive, take it to the garage and load it up on my Linux machine.

If you're handy with electronics, you can get new stepper motors 280oz-in for around $35, centent drives for $50ish or keling drives, power supply, controller pc, wires, connectors, etc. for maybe $300.

Well I replaced the motor of the mill with a motor from an unused lathe and the machine works fine now.
During that time I purchased the upgraded PCI card, only to be dissapointed. The new card was too much for my old mill and their was a lag between the computer and the cnc machine that caused the machine to cut incorrectly. The solution from intelitek was to upgrade the cnc machine, only $3500 after spending $1000 on the PCI card.
I am going to use the 80s vintage spectralight machine for what I can and maybe upgrade the mill or lathe at a later date. Thanks for all the help.