Status of EMCO CNC mill

EMCO is back up. Found a belt that is a replacement equivalent. It looked a bit off but I think that was a matter of tolerance and it does not slip or otherwise complain so I’m going to say it’s a match. Imagine my surprise when I took the ball screws on the x axis off and noticed that there were at least 12 missing in each of the two x axis ball screws. Actually I wasn’t surprised at all. I reloaded ball bearing in the ball screws but the closest replacements I could find were 1.5mm instead of the 1.54mm that I found in the ball screws. This meant about three extra bearings to fill the space and with backlash adjustment it looks good. I hope for better performance from a fully loaded bearing sleeve. I’m guessing of course. I will run some cuts tomorrow but I’m pretty happy with the way it is running so I’m calling it fixed for now.

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Based on your post, I took the liberty of updating the tool status board to show the EMCO as “green - working well with no issues”.

Chris

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Just FYI, all of the work I was doing was in the metric version. I saw the imperial, and it did fail when I tried to run it, so I didn’t. The gCode translation worked for me, but you have to enter g20 in the window first. That’s the same thing that goes into an imperial gcode program at the beginning so that all of it’s units are in inches.

I was going to post pictures of the doorknob part I finally completed, but they were on my phone, and it died (was murdered when I backed my motorcycle over it). Oh well.

I was told when I joined, and THOUGHT I saw it on the website, that the emco didn’t need training. I thought that was one of it’s points, was to let people get an intro to machining without waiting for a HAAS training class.

The requirement for training was kind of added later, after the Emco was brought back to life on one of its many iterations. There really isn’t all that much to know but as I mentioned, a few things you might LIKE to know. (like Z touch off… I’m kind of proud of that.) It’s all discover able but why go through that aggravation? I will be happy to meet and show you the things I think you should know and probably one thing you will find you like. There was a lot of discussion as to why training might be needed and in the end, I could see both scenarios. The consensus was to say training required and I could not find a good objection. Besides, the “training” is minimal and I was just being lazy (because I was probably going to be the one to develop training). All this was discussed almost a year ago I think and the training requirement was changed.

I am really, really interested in finding out why your code failed in the Imperial program. I think figuring that out could help a lot of people in the future so if nothing else I would love to see your code and give it a try myself.

Sorry if the Space put a requirement that you feel is an imposition. I completely understand but the path of least resistance is to meet with me for a few minutes and I’ll be happy to walk you thought what passes for “training”. Just give me a couple of option times that are convenient for you and we can arrange a meet up. Maybe we can make another part and post it. That would be cool!

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Steve,

Please count me in on your mini-class.

Thanks
Mark

I’d swear I already posted this, but don’t see it…


It is an imposition, but one I understand. After all, if it was a cheap piece of equipment, I would have already bought one.

The code never failed. I was saying that the imperial version of the app failed the first time, as you said, and I didn’t bother trying to run it a second time. So when you were up there and I was doing the manual moves and such in the gcode window, all of that was in imperial, but in the metric version of the app. I had just entered g20 when I first started, and it holds that through the entire session, so everything worked for me. If that could be communicated during any training, it wouldn’t be necessary to have a second version of the install. It would just depend on which is easier, telling people to use g20 and switch the view to imperial, or maintaining two sets of configuration so that people just had an imperial shortcut.

Yes, I saw it on the MakerSpace forums. I sent you a reply that I would like to meet with you and see what is failing. I think it would be a real benefit if we figure it out and fix the problem so if you want we can do that. Let me know when you have some time and I will meet you at the space and we can try running your code.

Steve

Any word on a date for this class? I did not see anything in the schedule and would like to get training on it!

-m

I asked for it to be scheduled but it did not appear on the calendar. I will try to get it scheduled for next week.

Steve, we probably should have asked when you emailed admin, but did you ever submit the event to the calendar? Admin (BoD) only handles the honorarium portion of classes and we sometimes assume people have already submitted it to the calendar system when we’re contacted.

More info here: https://dallasmakerspace.org/teach/

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You are right. I didn’t look carefully at the procedure so I did send it to the wrong place. I will re-try.

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Sorry Steve, we could have realized the potential issue and pointed you in the right direction.

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Thanks for the e-mail.
This was my fault. I have done this before but missed the link. I’ll get it right.

Steve

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OK! Training scheduled for Tuesday October 20st at 7 PM! Be there!

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Tuesday Oct 20th at 7 PM. I’ll be there.

will there be a second class for those that were not able to make the last one?

Redfox, I can meet with you and show you how to use it. We just have to find a good time and day of the week. I don’t have plans for another class yet.

Id like to also come if possible

ok, sorry, sorry… been busy. REDFOX and wesley910 ( and anyone else interested) show up at the space this coming Tuesday or Wednesday (Nov 3rd,4th)? I would be happy to go over the EMCO operations with you.