Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Learning CNC

e.heritage@... wrote:

> This is a very quick question. At first I thought 'When I get the money I'll
> just go straight for a mill that'll run from the PC'. But I've found a load
> of older machines that are in perfect working order and just need the
> attenion of some oil and a can of spray paint. So I was looking at these and
> the MASS of manuals that come with them. How hard is it to use these
> machines that run on numbers fed in raw? For instance I found a ?Hurco? that
> had nothing other than a keypad for the codes. It was something like $2500
> because no one was going to the page to bid for it. Is it much harder to use
> these things or are they not capable of doing other things that the ones run
> direct from my PC can? I don't mind if it takes a lot longer to learn if the
> thing is going to last a good 50 years. It may even be more beneficial if I
> could use CNC without going through the pretty consoles of windows I guess.
> Am I getting completely lost here or is this making some sort of sense to
> someone? : )

I don't recommend this route, the way you mention. Most of these old
controls are sick, or will be, soon. Most of these units have been turned
on for 20 years straight. The chips get worn out, and start going bad, and
every time you open it up to work on it, you get another raft of flakey
connections due to worn-out connectors. I had an Allen-Bradley
control from about 1980, and I had 3 major failures in 6 months of use.
I had full prints and a box of spare parts from that vintage, so I was able
to keep it running, but it got very tiring to constantly have to fix the thing.
But, the iron is good, and putting a PC retrofit control on it is a good way
to go. I'm running EMC, a product of the US government's NIST facility.

You don't want to enter a program manually and not be able to save it.
You'd go nuts, quickly! I have programs that are over 100 K long!
Also, the older controls are usually very slow in block processing time.
A program with many small moves (engraving or surface contouring)
will run so slowly you'll scream!

Jon