Brian's Emco Compact 5 Retro

[Dan13]

Brian,

I'll be looking forward to seeing them.

Thanks,
Daniel

[Ron Ginger]

I had been looking for one of these lathes, then in a week I had 2 of them. Im going to sell the CNC, which looks just like Brians in the first photo of this thread. The machine is complete with turret and it all runs. Ive been able to figure out how to do some simple programs on it to test it.

I will be putting it on ebay later this week, but if anyone on this forum wants it let me know, we can save the ebay commission. Its in Maine, and I could deliver it to the CNC workshop, or anywhere along the way.

ron ginger

[Bengt]

I am thinking about doing this in a plugin... I could make a dialog that would do about any toolchanger I hope to started that after I get the project that I am working on now done

This is going to be a good year!
Brian

Hi Brian,

Did you ever get your hands to do this 'plugin' ?
I am still looking for a simple way to handle my ATC with one Input only, there must be a way but I am not the VB guru to do this.
Macro or Brain, what do you say Brian?

[Brian Barker]

At this time after working with the other guys on lathe toolchangers I am thinking about using a Stepper to run my toolchanger That seems like a better system in the end... Also I think you need to have an input to rezero the toolchanger when you start the machine... Ron Ginger has this all working and will have ti at the workshop so we can play with it and see how it works

Thanks
Brian

[Bengt]

I think you need to have an input to rezero the toolchanger when you start the machine...

Why is that so? If you leave your toolchanger always with tool#1 you only need one input. You can also use a switch/relay to select either Index pulse or pulse/tool to do your Zeroing.

I have done some tests with G04P3000 and got the changer working perodically, the problem seems to be time. One full revolution is just under 14seconds with the original motor and the index pulse is 0.59sec and each tool pulse are 1.41sec

There must be a way to do this, time is not critical for the toolchange for me. Work on this is ongoing....... 

[Peter Homann]

Yes there is. Use the ModIO to control the toolchanger. 

Cheers,

Peter.

[Bengt]

Dear friends,
I have been pushing this idea for a long time now. I have asked for help from our local VB guru Henrik Olsson and now yesterday evening he came up with a new solution, we now have a macro that works to my specs that is one output and one input to control the original Emco ATC with it's original relayboard.

I have been running tests last evening and this morning and so far it has worked well after some adjustments

Enclosed please find the testfile I have used, you need to do some editing to suite your setting in MACH3 and to make it fully functional as M6Start file

Looking forward to here your comments out there and how this works on your ATC's

[Bengt]

Final M6Start macro for my Emco PC Turn 50 is enclosed

[Bengt]

Made some tweaking of the code, this is to be sure tool is locked in place before code is run

New lines added !

[Dan Mauch]

 I have a customer that has a EMCO compact 5. He want me to retrofit it for mach3. It has the tool changer that looks just like your. He wanted me to put a bigger  stepper motor on it but it doesn't look like a motor at all. Is that a solenoid that rotates the changer? If so what is the voltage, AC or DC and the amperage required.  If anyone else has an answer that would be fine.
Dan

Newfangled has just got there second CNC lathe  It is a Compact 5 made by Emco and will be used to test software. The cost of the lathe was $900.00 and is in running condition! When I say running I