EMC Lathe setup

How to set up emc on a lathe that is also a mill?

I was given an old sherline-based cnc lathe, and have basically
finished fixing the things wrong with it, and have made it go with a
test program written in basic. I had to use the X slide off a
sherline mill to replace the missing cross slide, and since that left
the mill useless I modified the column to attach in place of the lathe
headstock (which will complicate things in a minute).

I've gotten EMC (August 2000) up and running on rtlinux-2.0.36-.0.7
Got the green digits and made it execute code (without motors connected).

Now I'm trying to figure out how to orient the axis. I understand
lathe conventions would be with X and Z, although I'm not sure where
the origin is then, or how to get tkemc to display that nicely. I
figure I could fix the diameter problem simply by lying to emc.ini
about the number of steps or the axis scale. (If I do this though,
will I still be able to cut radii with G02/03?) Using lathe
conventions would be good, as a primary goal of getting the little
machine going is to gain experience for converting a 13" swing lathe.

OTOH, if I set it up as a lathe, then everything will be wrong if I
attach the mill head, with or without a powered Z axis... I suppose I
could and should have a seperate set of files for mill mode, but is
there someway to 'rewire' the axis in software?

Also, is there any way to get tkemc to use function keys the way xemc
would? I'd like to minimize use of the mouse when there are chips
flying everywhere.

Chris

--
Christopher C. Stratton, stratton@...
Instrument Maker, Horn Player & Engineer
22 Adrian Street, Somerville, MA 02143
http://www.mdc.net/~stratton
NEW PHONE NUMBER: (617) 628-1062 home, 253-2606 MIT