Hello From Sussex U.K.

[Phil Gravett]

Hi everyone.
Just joined this brilliant site. Think I could get lost in here for days and not realise the time!
I have an old Emco CNC 5 and a Denford Starmill that I am trying to get sense out of, so will be coming back here Quite a lot.

See you soon. Phil.

[mikemill]

Hi Phil
Do your shelf a favour and convert your Starmill to use Mach, you will then start to enjoy useing the tool. I converted an Orac lathe last year, now a very useable tool. I can let you know the basics of conversion if you are interested.
Cheers

Mike

[Phil Gravett]

Thanks for offer. I may well take you up on it. My friend has just converted an Orac using Eaziform parts so might look at that option first for Emco but I am going to do Denford Starmill first , as I have far more pressing jobs for mill than lathe. Most my turning is done on plugboard auto. Far easier to understand ! Regards Phil.

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by mikemill Hi Phil Do your shelf a favour and convert your Starmill to use Mach, you will then start to enjoy useing the tool. I converted an Orac lathe last year, now a very useable tool. I can let you know the basics of conversion if you are interested. Cheers Mike

Hi Mike;
I have recently purchse an Orac Lathe it partially work but I would like to convert it so i could run it with my pc and mach software. Should I stip everything out or keep a few board?
Maurice

[mikemill]

Maurice

You want to keep the power supply to steppers, (thats the toriadal transformer and two big capacitors) the rest is junk. I assume you know what you need for the conversion!

Cheers
Mike

[Maurice]

Hi Mike;
thanks for the respond. I'm not sure . My experience that I have in this is I have built a CNC Router with three gecko drive. I assume I should be going in the same direction.
Regards
Maurice

[mikemill]

Maurice

Your on the right lines, you will need a VFD to drive the motor, a breakout board, spindle index board, I used CNC4PC as backup is very good, two drivers for steppers, Geeko's are good, 2x 12vDC power supplies, E stop switch.

Basic layout is, make a 240v bus bar, as there are lots of connections, put in a 5amp fuse from 240v to motor power suppy 60vDC output goes to drivers, then to steppers. 12vDC for breakout board, other 12vDC goes to motor relay on breakout board, output goes to VFD to control motor.
I found the worst bit was configueing Mach,

Good Luck
Mike

[Maurice]

Hi Mike;
I finally got at this project bought 2 geckodrive G203v and a cnc board C11G back in the spring. Now few month later I finally decide to put it together. I want to get the two axis going first but seem to have some problem I'm getting the signal to the board and the motor are energized but no movement. Any Idea would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Maurice

[mikemill]

Maurace
As I mentioned in my last post configuring your controler is the difficut bit,if you are using Mach look through the config part of the manual ( Artsoft Help)

Whilst I will do my best to help its been a while since I went through this exercise and might be a bit rusty, If you contact Arturo at CNC4pc tech help he is very helpfull
Good Luck
Mike

[mikemill]

One further thought on Mach Turn there are three differant jog settings, I can remember wondering why machine would not jog, reason wrong jog setting.

If there is any criticisum of CNC machines is there is a lot of setting to look after

Mike

[Maurice]

Hi Mike
I've got the two axis on my lathe working and fine tuned it with the Mach program it run nice. Know the interesting part is to get the spindle running. I played a bit with the setting last night but still won't work. I'm planning to buy a VFD but I taught I would try the old board first before I throw it in the garbage. Is there a possibility it would work or I'm loosing my time?
Maurice

[mikemill]

Hi Maurice
Good to hear you are making progress, I think you will have to bite the bullet and buy a VFD, you will also need an index card ( CNC4pc) to read the revelutions of your spindle you will then end up with a pucker reliable tool
There's a chap making 8 station tool turrets for Orac's and Emco's on ebay ( Milling machines and Lathes/ CNC) I just got one nice bit of kit well made.
Let me know how you get on
Cheers
Mike