emco pc5 lathe

[rcredd]

I see in the backgrounf what looks like a PC 55 Mill. If so, did you convert that machine also? And if so what did you do to that?
I have a PC 55 Mill and am thinking of upgrading it and adding a 4th axis (A). Currently I am in the process of converting a Prazi SD300 to cnc.
Nice work on your lathe.

[hutchison]

its a mill50, no it is not converted but a few people have done so, there is little difference between the 50 and 55 hardware wise, drop
binski a line on cnczone, or try mcgyver on cnczone.nl, he did a conversion with 4th axis also.

[hutchison]

may aswell pop in a little update while i am here, i made a jog pendant a while back bbbbbbgvxc using a bidirectional LPT2 card, set the bios to 2 way, and a simple parallel interface = 13 I/0's, i can use it semi- manually now or i have some basic auto controls like spindle start/stop feed hold etc,  and spindle speed + /-  and a rotary switch from incremental to constant velocity on the mpeg modes.
some machined ally and formed perspex. yet to detail legend.

[Hood]

Very tidy looking panel
Hood

[hutchison]

ta, still feels a bit quirky turning the dials and cutting but i wouldn't be without it now! it gives the machine another dimension, good for the odd small manual op.

[Hood]

I use my MPG for positioning and touching off only and never for cutting as I find it much easier just MDI'ing if I want a quick cut. If I was going to though I would remove the indent from the MPG and maybe fit something to apply a little it of drag, that way it would make things feel and move much better for manual machining. Maybe yours already are like that?
Another thing I would likely do is use a higher count encoder as I think that would help the control of manual operations, but of course pulse count may be an issue if using the parallel port.
Hood